MANILA, Philippines – It wasn’t really a surprise that Vietnam, the defending champion, is back in the AVC Women’s Challenge Cup finals.
And the Vietnamese lived up to it with an emphatic 27-25, 25-10, 25-10 victory over the Australians Tuesday that gave them another shot at the gold in this annual tournament at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
It was made more impressive by the fact that the many-time Southeast Asian Games silver medalist accomplished the feat with its unspoken leader, Tran Thi Thanh Thuy, or popularly called T4, just sitting and watching helplessly from the bench due to knee issues.
In her stead was Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen, who continued to wreak havoc by uncorking 24 points including 21 on kills as Vietnam, which swept Pool B in four matches, punched its finals ticket.
There, Vietnam will clash with either Alas Pilipinas or Kazakhstan, who will battle each other in the other semifinal pairing at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The Aussies were relegated to the battle for the bronze.
But whoever the Vietnamese will face, they should be the favorites to repeat considering they came in with more arsenals with the addition of the power-hitting Nguyen, who is getting her baptism of fire here.
And, of course, there is Tran, a veteran internationalist who is a legitimate force of nature should she be unleashed in the finals.
Earlier, India dumped Indonesia, 25-16, 30-32, 25-20, 27-25, and Iran trounced Hong Kong, 26-24, 26-24, 19-25, 25-19, to arrange a battle for fifth place.
Indonesia and Hong Kong will face off for No. 7.