Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, October 3, 2008 – Fired-up Korea and indomitable China on Friday continued their remarkable run to top Group A and Group B respectively on the final day of the group round-robin preliminaries in the inaugural Asian Women’s Cup Volleyball Championship, a qualifier for the 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix.

In front of a huge crowd at The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall, Korea recovered from losing the first set 25-19 to Vietnam to win the remaining sets 25-15, 25-15, 25-18. In Group A match while hosts Thailand sent Chinese Taipei packing 25-15, 25-19, 25-18 in 70 minutes.

In Group B, China downed Japan 25-9, 25-22, 25-13 and Australia beat Malaysia 25-11, 25-21, 25-22 to register their first victory in the eight-team competition from which the top two teams, excluding the already qualified Japan and China, will advance to next year’s World Grand Prix.

For Chinese Taipei, this one-week Asian tournament serves as a platform ahead of their campaign in next year’s World Women’s Junior Championship in Mexico. They booked their berths after finishing second to Japan in the recent Asian Women’s Junior Championship on home soil.

Thai Head Coach Natapon Srisamutnak was pleased with his girls’ form against Chinese Taipei: “The match against Chinese Taipei was not that tough. They are small and could not score crucial points from blocking. However, our form is also below-standard.

“I’m convinced that we will beat Australia in our next match in the quarter-finals. A daunting task awaits us in the semi-finals, where we are due to go up against China. The Chinese are tall and towering and we have to make sure our first-ball reception lives up to our expectation. If not, the Chinese will seize the chance to storm back mightily.

“However, with China and Japan having already made the cut for the next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix, I’m quite sure that Thailand will join them in the premier competition,” said Srisamutnak.

In the mighty clash of the two unbeaten teams on Friday, China, bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympic Games, fielded a full-strength line-up including hard-attacking Wang Yimei, Li Juan, Xue Ming and Liu Yanan, while Japan was led by Mai Fujii, who scored a match-high 11 kills from 18 attempts.

China took command initially, going 10-3 ahead in the opening set, courtesy of powerful Wang’s deadly spikes to the back court and terrific jump serves. The Chinese, whose height average is 187 cm against the less-experienced rivals’ 176cm, used their scintillating blocks and thundering cross-court spikes from the strongly-built Wang to stretch it to 21-8.

The reigning Asian Games champions allowed Japan only one more point from an unforced serving mistake from Wang to take the comfortable set 25-9.

After conceding the first set quickly, Japan got their act together and bounced back bravely to take a narrow 11-10 lead in the second set. However, the fist-pumping Chinese unleashed a barrage of lightning spikes which caught the Japanese flat-footed several times, caught their rivals at 19-19 and kept up their rhythm to win the closely contested set 25-22.

In the third set, China fielded two star spikers, Yang Hao and Zhou Suhong, in a bid to make short work of Japan. Their determined intentions paid dividends when China captured the set 25-13 with ease, ending the encounter. Ai Inden led the Japanese with 10 points, while Xue Ming scored a game-high 17 for China.

For China, the victory was sweet revenge for the loss of their crown to Japan in last year’s Asian Senior Women’s Championship here. They have shone in the on-going tournament by not losing a single set to their respective rivals in the preliminaries.

Despite the loss, Japanese Head Coach Sadatoshi Sugawara expressed his satisfaction over his girls’ form.

“This is a newly-formed Japan team. All of the players who competed in the Beijing Olympic Games called it a day. I became the new Head coach of the Japanese team. The players were called in to train together just one week ahead of the championship here,” Sugawara said.

“Although we lost to China, I’m still satisfied with my girls’ performance. China is very strong and highly experienced. To match them is not that easy. Actually, before coming here, we set our initial target of winning the crown.

“However, after I realized the exceptional skills of strong teams like China and South Korea, I’m optimistic that to finish third here is satisfactory for my team. My girls are still young and need more experience. They are the Japanese team for the future, maybe for the next Olympic Games in London,” said Sugawara.

At the completion of the preliminaries on Friday, unbeaten Korea topped Group A with six points from three straight wins, followed respectively by Thailand with five points from two wins against one loss, Vietnam with four points from one win against two losses and winless Chinese Taipei had three points.

China topped Group B as expected after collecting six points from three successive victories. Japan came in second place with five points from two wins against one loss. Australia finished third in the group with four points from one win against two losses, while underdogs Malaysia claimed three points from consecutive three losses.

Saturday is the rest day. The competition resumes on Sunday with the quarter-finals, with South Korea taking on Malaysia, China playing Chinese Taipei, Australia challenging hosts Thailand and Japan facing Vietnam.

Group rankings(tabulated under matches played, won, lost and points)

GROUP A

1. Korea 3 3 0 6

2. Thailand 3 2 1 5

3. Vietnam 3 1 2 4

4. Chinese Taipe 3 0 3 3

GROUP B

1. China 3 3 0 6

2. Japan 3 2 1 5

3. Australia 3 1 2 4

4. Malaysia 3 0 3 3

Match schedule for quarter-finals on October 5

1A (Korea) - 4B (Malaysia), 1B (China) - 4A (Chinese Taipei), 2A (Thailand) - 3B (Australia), 2B (Japan) - 3A (Vietnam)