Trieste, Italy, October 1, 2014 – China kept the upper hand over Germany 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-23) on the first day of the second round of the Women’s World Championship 2014 at PalaTrieste on Wednesday evening and retain their top position in the standings of Pool E, one point ahead of Italy.
Key facts
• This was tenth time Germany and China met at the World Championship with China winning seven of those.
• Before today, last time meeting at a major tournament came at the 2011 World Cup with China beating Germany in straight sets as well.
• This was the first time since 2006 that Germany lost three match in a row in a World Championship.
• Germany lost their record to win at least one set in each of their last eight world championship matches.
• Ting Zhu confirmed her position as top-three-ranked spiker of the tournament.
The top scorer of tonight’s match was Ting Zhu with 19 points, followed by her teammate Yunli Xu with 9 and Xiaotong Liu with 8 points for China. Margareta Kozuch scored 15 and Maren Brinker 10 points for Germany.
It was back to action again at 2014 FIVB Women’s World Championship with the evening match of the second round in Trieste. Germany and China began the Pool E match in a very balanced way with China taking the lead at the first technical timeout 8-5. A long rally at 11-6 was captured by China. Point-by-point, spike-by-spike, China took flight to 15-9. A block, a second line attack and an ace from Junjing Yang gained China 3 other points to open the gap to six points at 18-12. With what seemed a nearly faultless game China quickly moved forward to 21-14. A double substitution for Germany at 22-15 did not change the final verdict, Chunlei Zeng scored twice and Junjing Yang took the set point for China, 25-16.
Germany commenced the second set in a more competitive way achieving a one-point lead at 6-5. Nevertheless, an unflustered China advanced to 8-7 at first technical timeout. Heike Beier’s spikes took Germany to 11-9. Parity arrived at 14-14 and again 15-15. Germany battled their way back into this set, standing up to the strength of China at the net for the first time in this match. Christiane Fürst took Germany into a 16-15 lead. A point-by-point race began to 23 all when Fangxu Yang claimed two points clinching the set for their team 25-23.
Germany seemed to have lost concentration giving away four precious points at 7-3, but working hard they came back at the first technical timeout 8-6. Drawing at 10-10 Xiaotong Liu with her spike sliced through a triple block. Germany were not defeated, fighting for every point until 16-14 for China. Germany’s coach Giovanni Giudetti called timeout at 17-14 and it worked, taking Germany to 18-19. The battle went on to 22-22 with Germany taking the lead at 22-23 thanks to a block of Heike Beier. However, it was not enough to contain China power. Ting Zhu’s three straight points gave China victory at 25-23.