Young, tall Taiwan crew clobbers RP side
By Ian Brion
Correspondent

Chinese-Taipei’s Chung Shan made mincemeat of Accel Filipinas’ vaunted defense, 25-18, 25-13, 25-15, for its second consecutive triumph in the 2006 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship yesterday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
       The taller Taiwanese, led by the thunder-spiking duo of Chen Mei Ching and Lin Ching, relentlessly attacked with an array of spikes which the host team failed to contain. The Taiwanese won in just 62 minutes.
       Chen and Lin scored nine points apiece to power Chinese-Taipei, the 2004 champion which lost to China in last year’s final. Tsai Yin Feng and Wu Ko Jou added eight and seven points, respectively.
       The Philippines, which beat Indonesia on opening-day Wednesday, was paced by Cherry Rose Macatangay, the team skipper, with seven points. Mary Jean Balse and Michelle Carolino each had six points.
       Defending champion Tianjin Bridgestone China followed Chung Shan Chinese-Taipei on top of the heap with a similarly lopsided 25-13, 25-13, 25-13 win over sluggish Indonesian Garuda team.
       Utility spiker Zhang Ziqian delivered 13 crisp kills, swatting six enemy attempts and one service point, while Jing Huo hit eight kills, got two blocks and one service point.
       “Basically and technically malaki talaga ang advantage nila [Chinese-Taipei],” said Accel coach Dante Reyes. “Then add mo pa ’yung lack of cohesion. Last month lang nag-umpisa ang training namin kasi ’yung iba naglalaro sa V-League kaya ’di masyadong madalas ang matinding training namin—compared to them matagal nang magkakasama, so nandoon na ’yung cohesiveness nila.”
       Chung Shan coach Lin Kuang Hung concurred: “We practice all year round together, so that’s a big advantage for us already.”
       “But knowing that the Philippines doesn’t have the kind of preparation that we have, their performance is quite commendable,” added Lin, whose team is composed of high-school and college players aged 18 to 22.
       The visitors peppered the home squad with 39 spikes with the latter making only 17. They also showed might in defense, scoring nine points off the blocks to their opponents’ four.
       The victory was a fitting tune-up for the Taiwanese who go up against the Chinese at 6 p.m. in one of today’s featured matches of the weeklong tournament organized by Philippine Volleyball Federation and sponsored by Hitachi Air-Conditioning Products, Shakey’s Pizza, Hope, PCSO and Accel.
       The Taiwanese earned their first win at the expense of Kazakhstan the other day, 25-16, 18-25, 25-21, 25-14, while the Chinese scored a 23-25, 25-19, 25-22, 26-24 victory over Thailand also on opening day.
       The Filipinas will take on Japan’s Hisamitsu Seiyaku Springs squad at 4 p.m., also today. Sangsom Thailand faces Indonesian Garuda team in first game at 2 p.m.