Nakhon Ratchasima , Thailand , October 5, 2008 -- Crucial wins on Sunday secured Korea and Thailand berths for not only the semi-finals of the inaugural Asian Women’s Cup Volleyball Championship,which also doubles as the Asian Qualification Tournament for 2009 Grabd Prix, but also won the last two tickest to the next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix.

As expected, Asian respective top four teams—Japan, China, Thailand and Korea remained on course as they flexed their muscles to storm past their less-experienced rivals in similar straight sets in the Sunday’s quarter-finals.

Japan hammered Vietnam 25-11 25-21 25-23, while China crushed Chinese Taipei 25-17 25-13 25-15, host Thailand annihilated Australia 25-14 25-14 25-17 and Korea outclassed Malaysia, the only team yet to win a single set in the eight-team tournament, 25-14 25-12 25-7.

In addidition to advancing to the Monday’s semi-finals, Korea and Thailand are also assured of winning their berths to compete in the next year’s 12 team FIVB World Grand Prix as the best ranking teams no matter they finish the first or the fourth because China and Japan hanve already made the cut for the women’s annual premiere competition.

With the two Asian teams booking their places, the roster of all 12 participating teams for the next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix has already been completed. They are Brazil, USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Russia, China, Japan, Korea and Thailand .

The quarter-finals of the one-week, eight-team tournament on Sunday drew a huge crowd of more than 3,500 local enthusiasts packing The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall to cheer on their favourite teams.

In the match between China, world number 5 and bronze medalists at the Beijing Olympic Games, and Chinese Taipei, the Chinese squad replaced libero Zhang Na with highly-experienced Liu Yanan and instead fielded Zhou Suhong to play in the fast spiker Liu’s position.

Title-hotshots China, former consecutive ten-time Asian champions who finished fifth at this year’s World Grand Prix, used their particular power-and-speed tactics to take an initial 16-11 lead in the first set.

Coached by Japanese Norimasa Sakakuchai, Chinese Taipei, which finished runner-up to eventual winners Japan in the recent Asian Women’s Junior Championship on home soil, tried hard to retrieve fierce spikes by the two towers --190cm Wang Yimei and 193cm Xue Ming. Still, their brave fightback proved no match against the much stronger China’s superiority. The Chinese clinched the opening set 25-17.

The reigning Asian Games champions China, whose height average is 187cm against the rivals’ 171cm, rolled on their rhythm in the second set, which they led narrowly 11-9. Sakakuchai rotated several players in his side to seek the right formula in a determined attempt of matching the mighty Chinese.

However, their fighting rally was shortlived when China took the splendid offensive combination of spectacular spikes by Wang Yimei and Li Juan and stuff blocks from Xue Ming and Ma Yunwen to win the comfortable second set 25-13.

China still dominated the third set, with Wang and Xue penetrating the Chinese Taipei’s defence with their thundering spikes and Zhou and Li Juan overcoming smaller blockers. Devastating China captured the crucial set 25-15. Xue Ming scored the highest 16 points for China , while Chen Wan Ting led Chinese Taipei with 13 points.

After the match, Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe gave Chinese Taipei a thumb up, saying that the opponents came up with an improved form despite the fact that they are junior team.

“I think Chinese Taipei played very well today. They tried their best although they learned that they had no match against us. They played with guts. In some crucial moments, I thought that Wang’s spikes could score vital points for China . Situations had changed as Chinese Taipei blocked Wang’s spikes effectively and counter-attacked well to collect points instead,” Chen commented.

“I fielded Liu Yanan in place of libero Zhang Na because Zhang is suffering from an upset stomach. Due to the bad symptom, Zhang has a poor eyesight. I then decided to replace her with Liu and at the same time fielded Zhou Suhong in place of Liu’s position.

“We did have tough matches in the Beijing Olympic Games. That’s why we are playing relaxed matches here. Nothing changed much in my team. All players still play in the team. I just wanted them to take a long rest after tough matches in Beijing ,” he added.

“Ass far as I’m concerned, Asian teams such as Korea, Japan and China have not made outstanding development. They still came out with similar standards. I can’t say it now how about our semi-final match against Thailand . One thing I can say is that Thailand is a strong team. I think it will be an exciting match tomorrow (Monday).” Chen noted.

Meanwhile, the host girls enjoyed another field day on Sunday as they thrashed Australia in straight sets to make it to the semi-finals. Thai head coach Natapon Srisamutnak expressed his satisfaction over his girls’form.

“As I said before, our match against Australia is not that tough. Our daunting task is in the semi-finals against China . Pleumjit (Thinkaow), a key player in our team, suffered a back injury and I decided to rest her, hoping that she can heal in time for the semi-finals,” commented Natapon.

“Injured Amporn (Hyapa) is recovering and is likely to be fielded in the semi-finals. Although it will be tough out there in the semi-finals, I believe my girls will do their best with a high hope of winning a set. For my team, a set win over China is a great success.” he added.

In Monday’s semi-finals, Thailand go up against indomitable China and Korea take on Japan, while Malaysia challenge Vietnam and Australia face Chinese Taipei in the classification 5th-8th round.

Competition schedule:

Classification for 5th-8th places

11am: Malaysia vs. Vietnam

1pm: Chinese Taipei vs. Australia

Semi-finals

4pm: Korea vs. Japan

6pm: China vs. Thailand