Fuzhou, China, June 23,
2012 – China and Australia will clash in the Finals of the AVC Women’s Beach Volleyball Continental Cup at Min River Park in Fuzhou, China after winning their semifinal matches on Saturday.
China’s
exceptional court sense meant Kazakhstan won just a single set in their three matches. The Kazakhstan attackers feared
China’s presence at the net and that limited the former’s scoring options.
Wang Fan and
Yue Yuan easily stunned the second team of Kazakhstan. Yue’s jump serve
derailed the Kazakhs’ defensive instincts and allowed China to take a big lead
and the eventual first match victory in straight sets (21-6, 21-9).
Zhang
Changning and Ma Yuan Yuan’s performance was not as strong as their compatriots performance was, but it was good enough to award China another
straight sets victory (21-20, 21-19) against Tatyana Mashkova and Irina
Tsimbalova.
The Kazakh
pair put up a fight to force a tiebreaker in the third match against the Chinese
duo Zhang CH. N./Y.Y. Ma, but they could not reverse their fortunes
as the Chinese duo clinched a 21-18, 21-23, 15-7 win.
A promising
Thai victory in the first match never developed as
Australia claimed the remaining ticket to the finals 3-1.
Jarunee Sannok
and Usa Tenpaksee bounced back from a first set deficit to clinch the opening win for Thailaind, beating Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy. In the next match,
Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchley prevailed in another three-set battle (21-10,
17-21, 15-7), this time, against Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha Udomchavee.
Cook/Hinchley
continued to increase the intensity and completed a convincing 2-0 (21-14,
21-15) win over Sannok/Tenpaksee. While experience made a huge difference in Cook/Hinchley's match, it was the youthful vigour that prevailed in
Artacho/Clancy’s match against Radarong/Udomchavee.
Clancy’s defensive
brilliance at the net was vital to Australia’s straight sets win (21-14, 21-19)
to open the final round door for her team.
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