Press release

London, Great Britain, August 5, 2012 – China edged Korea in five grueling sets (28-26, 22-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-10) as both teams secured berths in the quarterfinals phase of the Olympic Games women’s volleyball tournament at Earls Court on Sunday.

China finished second in Pool B behind United States with a 3-2 mark and 9 points while Korea collected one valuable point to secure at least a fourth place with their 2-3 win-loss record and 8 points.

Hui Ruoqi led five Chinese players with double digits in the scores with 20 points, followed by Chu Jinling who finished with 14. Yang Junjing and Ma Yunwen each contributed 12 tallies and Zhang Lei added 12.

Korea’s Kim Yeon-Koung registered a match-high 32 points, including three blocks and two aces, and Han Song-Yi added 16. Yang Hyo-Jin and Kim Hee-Jin tallied 14 and 13 respectively with Yang totaling five blocks.

The winners edged the defeated side in blocks (13-12) and service aces (7-6).

Kim Hee-Jin and KIM Yeon-Koung dominated the early point-scoring for Korea, who raced to a 18-8 lead, but they were pegged back as Hui Ruoqi served an ace to make it 20-18. Korea squandered three set points and China capped an incredible comeback to seal it 28-26.
 
Korea led 5-2 in the second, but once again China hit back to level at 5-5, as Ma Yunwen began to rack up the points for her side before letting Korea storm ahead 19-12, due partly to some good work from Han Song-Yi. This time, Korea maintained their lead and took the set 25-22.
 
It was an even start to the third set as HUI and Zhang Lei continued to impress in front of a passionate crowd. After a great block by Kim Yeon-Koung, Korea went 10-8 ahead but again they gave away their lead and China eventually won it 25-19.
 
In the fourth set, Korea threw away a six-point lead from 19-13 and an ace from Yang Jinling bought China within two points at 24-22. However, Korea managed to take the set at the fourth attempt, 25-22.
 
In the final set, Hui pushed China into the lead and they opened up a four-point gap to make it 10-6. A spike from Xu Yunli ) won the match for China as they sealed the final set 15-10
 
Both sides have qualified for the knockout phase of the competition and will play sides from the other pool on Tuesday, August 7.