Hong Kong, China, July 21, 2017 - China confidently beat Japan 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 33-35, 25-21) in their first match in Pool G of the FIVB World Grand Prix.
An Jiajie, China, coach: Japan gave us many difficulties in defense and quick attacks today. Our team players lost their momentum during the third set and were weak in coping with the hard time. Some of our players played against Japan for the first time. I encouraged them to play against team with different styles.
Zhu Ting, China, captain: I’m glad that we won this match. We performed well in blocking and defense at the beginning but we did face pressure given by Japan at the third set.
Kumi Nakada, Japan, coach: Thanks for the support from the Hong Kong audience especially for some of our new players who represent the nation for the first time. China is outstanding in their height and power. However, we also adopted aggressive attacks. After losing today’s match, we have learnt a lot and hope that we can improve and have a better performance in the following matches. I think the key to winning today’s third set was our determination. While we gave great pressure to China in this set, blocking is an area we need to improve as China gained 17 points by blocking.
Nana Iwasaka, Japan, captain: We played very well in the third set. Although we lost today, we will continue to work hard in the next two days.
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