China beats Thailand to move into Asian Games women's volleyball final

HANGZHOU, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion China beat Thailand 3-0 on Friday to set up a final showdown against Japan in the women's volleyball tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Thailand jumped 3-0 ahead in the opening set before China fought back with an 8-0 run. Although Thailand managed to level the scores at 19-19, China finally won the set 25-21.

At one point, Thailand had a six-point advantage in the second set, but China's Li Yingying and Wu Mengji combined for four points to cut the deficit, before Gong Xiangyu served to take the set 25-23.

The third set was a comparatively easier affair for China as they prevailed 25-15.

"The most important thing I think in today's match is we prepared for the difficulties. We didn't pay a lot of attention to the huge deficit we had in the middle of the second set, we just focused on how to solve the problem," said Li, who led China with 19 points.

Thailand's Chatchu On Moksri scored a game-high 21 points, but China had four players in double-digits.

Japan edged Vietnam 3-1 (26-24, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16) in the other semifinal.

Both side exchanged lead spike for spike in the first set until the scores were tied at 24-24, then Japan's Mizuki Tanaka scored two in a row to kill the suspense.

Japan kept a tiny advantage throughout the second set, before Vietnam fought back to win the third set.

In the fourth set, Japan produced a 5-0 run to dash Vietnam's hopes of dragging the game into a decider.

Japan's Yuki Nishikawa was the leading scorer with 22 points, while Vietnam's Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh top-scored for her team with 21 points.