Sri Lanka win a thriller against Macau in 9-13th place fight

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Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball
Sri Lanka v Macau - 2nd Asian Women's U23 Volleyball Championship

Sri Lanka tasted their first win at the SMM 2nd Asian Women’s u23 Volleyball Championship after defeating Macau in thrilling four sets 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 26-24 at the 9th-13th classification round.

Chinese Taipei thrash Sri Lanka in Asian Women’s U23 opener

Chinese Taipei registered their first win at the SMM 2nd Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball..

The Sri Lankans, who finished fourth in Pool C, took on Macau who were placed third in Pool A. Both sides suffered straight losses in their respective pools at the round-robin preliminaries. Sri Lanka are in pool G alongside Australia and Macau in the 9-13th place playoffs.

Sri Lanka had an impressive start to win the hard-fought opening set 25-23. Macau found their touch to put up a good fight and claimed the hotly-contested second set 26-24.

Sri Lanka fared better in crucial moments of the next two sets to win the third and closely-contested fourth 25-21, 26-24 and the match.

Thilini Perera top scored with 13 points for Sri Lanka. Law Weng Sam scored a match-high 21 points for Macau including 5 ace serves, with Leong On Leng adding 19 points.

“I am very happy for my team’s victory. They gave me a special present because today is my birthday. We had two losses in the first round, but I think we played a good match today. I trained my team only three months before playing in this tournament in Thailand. I hope that my players will gain more experience playing against strong teams and hopefully we will finish this tournament with a good position,” Sri Lanka’s head coach Janaka Indrajith said after the match.

Pool Gpool G

Previous results

Sri Lanka suffered losses in their final two group games against Kazakhstan and Australia. Kazakhstan showed no mercy to Sri Lanka crushing the underdogs in a totally lop-sided affair 25-14, 25-8 & 25-12 while Australia snatched their first win after cruising past the smaller-built Sri Lankans in dramatic four sets 25-16 25-23 21-25 25-14 on Monday.

Monday’s results (15th May)

Japan b Uzbekistan 3-0 (25-6 25-11 25-12)
Chinese Taipei b Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-19 25-17 25-19)
Iran b New Zealand 3-0 (28-26 25-22 25-20)
Hong Kong b Macao 3-2 (20-25 25-3 25-16 16-25 15-9)
Australia b Sri Lanka 3-1 (25-16 25-23 21-25 25-14)