China win thriller and move closer to the quarterfinals

China survived a match of numerous ups and downs to claim their sixth victory in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and remain on the path for the quarterfinals of the tournament on Thursday.

The Asians, who had only lost sets to Brazil so far, were strongly challenged by the Netherlands, but found their best game in the tie-breaker to triumph 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 18-25, 15-12) in their second Pool E match at the Ahoy Arena.

· Watch all FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.

With the five-set victory, the Chinese were able to maintain second place in Pool E with six wins (17 points), only behind Volleyball Nations League champions Italy, who also have six victories, but have been able to collect 19 points so far. The four best-ranked teams in each pool move forward to the quarterfinals.

The result has, however, complicated Dutch aspirations of making it to the quarterfinals in front of their home fans. The Europeans continue in sixth place with four wins (13 points) and will have to gain at least two spots before the end of Phase 2, on Sunday, to move forward.

“It was a very exciting match,” Chinese setter Diao Linyu said. “Our teamwork was really important for us to win the match at the end. We’re used to training with each other, so it wasn’t difficult for me to decide what to do in the most important moments of the match.”

Most of Diao’s decisions in key moments were to feed the ball to outside hitter Li Yingying, who left the court as the match’s top scorer. The left-handed, 22-year-old Chinese produced as many as 23 points, with 20 kills, two blocks and one ace.

Fellow outside hitter Wang Yunlu also had a prolific night, with 14 points (all in kills), while middle blocker Yang Hanyu changed the course of the match after she came off the bench to tally another 13 points (12 kills, one block), one more than team captain Yuan Xinyue, who scored the game-winning point and produced nine kills and three blocks.

The Netherlands had three players with similar production including team captain Anne Buijs, who had 18 points (16 kills, two aces), outside hitter Nika Daalderop, who left the court with 17 (16 kills, one block), and middle blocker Juliet Lohuis, who chipped in another 15 (11 kills, four blocks).

Earlier on Thursday, Brazil secured their sixth World Championship victory with a straight-set (25-11, 25-13, 25-15) win over Puerto Rico. The South Americans are third in the pool with six wins and 17 points, but a lower set ratio than China’s. Ranked seventh with two wins (six points), the Caribbeans can no longer make it to the next round.

FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Poland Slovenia 2022: Schedule and results

Pool E play continues on Friday with three matches in Rotterdam – Japan and Puerto Rico will meet at 14.15 local time (12.15 GMT), Italy and Argentina will clash three hours later and Brazil and the Netherlands will conclude the daily schedule at the Ahoy Arena at 20.15 local time (18.15 GMT).

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FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Netherlands Poland 2022
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