By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Japan survived a resilient China side, 24-26, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12, to keep its record unblemished at the start of Week 3 of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Tuesday night, July 4, at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Skipper Yuki Ishikawa and Kento Miyaura carried the cudgels in the crunch as the Japanese extended their winning record to nine games and tightened their grip of the top spot.
Ishikawa unloaded 19 points highlighted by 16 kills while Miyaura fired 15 points including the game-winning down-the-line spike.
China fell behind 17-9 and 21-13 in the opening set but rallied furiously to take the opening set before an ecstatic fans.
China kept its defensive wall and appeared to be heading to the match win with a 22-21 lead in the fourth set, but Ishikawa and Miyaura came through with hard-hitting attacks to give Japan a 24-23 lead before a service error from Zhai Dejun forged the match into a decider.
This time, Japan slowly dictated the pace, shattering a 5-all deadlock to surge ahead10-6 and never looked back.
Ran Takahashi also dazzled for Japan and finished with 14 points built on 10 kills and four aces, while Yuji Nishida fired 11 attacks to finish with 12 points.
China’s loss – its seventh against two victories – put them at 12th place despite the strong efforts of Zhang Jingyin, Yu Yuantai and Li Yongzhen.
Zhang erupted for 21 points while Yu and Li had 17 and 16 points.
The Chinese posted an impressive 17 blocks, but those were not enough to stop a fiery Japanese crew.
