Taiwanese trim Japanese for 2nd place

Chinese Taipei’s Chun Shan club finished second behind champion China’s Tianjin Bridgestone team for the second straight year in the annual Asian Club Women’s volleyball championship.

The Taiwanese retained first runner-up honors with a 25-18, 25-11, 25-27, 25-22 walloping of Japan’s Hisamitsu Seiyaku Springs at the close of the 2006 Hitachi Asian tilt at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum yesterday.

Rahat Kazakhstan secured third spot as it whipped winless Garuda Indonesia, 25-18, 25-18, 19-25, 25-12, for a 4-2 closing mark.

Thailand, on the other hand, beat host Philippines, 25-11, 25-21, 25-13, to finish fourth. Wilavan Apinyapong emerged the best scorer for the Thais with 14 kills and one service point.

Like in the Vietnam joust last year, Chun Shan finished a strong second behind Tianjin Bridgestone with five wins against a lone defeat coming at the hands of the Chinese.

The Taiwanese proved no match to the Chinese but too much for the rest of the field, including the Japanese whom they disposed of in four sets.

The Japanese barely cashed in on the Taiwanese’ numerous errors to take the third set at 26-24.

With a 2-4 closing card, Hisamitsu Seiyaku finished fifth in the seven-nation tourney, ahead of Accel Philippines and Garuda Indonesia.

Chun Shan came up with an amazing show of vicious attacks and tough defense to frustrate the Japanese in their final outing in the weeklong tourney sponsored by Hitachi Air, Shakey’s Pizza, Hope, PCSO and Accel.

As in their previous games, looker Ching I Lin led their offense, using her quickness to pepper the Filipinas with booming spikes.

"I guess we have tremendous advantage in experience and we just took advantage of it," said Taiwanese coach Lin Kuang Hung. - Nelson Beltran