Indian Women Volleyball Team Starts Its Campaign On A Winning Note By Defeating Iran In The Asian Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup 2024 At Manila, Philippines

 

The 2024 Asian Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup is the fifth edition of the Asian Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup, an annual international volleyball tournament organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) with the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF). The tournament is currently held at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, Philippines from 22nd – 29th May 2024. In the opening day of the Pool A matches, today India beat Iran by 3:0 sets (25-17, 25-23 & 25-21) to start its campaign on a winning note. The Indian team will be playing against Chinese Taipei on 23rd May, the Philippines on 24th May 2024 & Australia on 25th May 2024.

India proved that they could run a good game at the middle, but mostly, they showed how craftily and creatively they could convert in transition plays. Their backcourt played steadily enough to sustain, and win long rallies. When they needed to set the flanks, they varied their attacks in both angle and speed and connected successfully. 

India encountered a strong third-set resistance from Iran before wrapping up a 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 win in Pool A that took an hour and 24 minutes, while Kazakhstan had a practically easier time against Singapore, 25-15, 25-9, 25-17, behind Kristina Belova’s 15 points in Pool B action.  

“I feel very proud and happy,” India’s team captain Kovat Shaji Jini said. “The Iran team’s very good but we focused on our service and digging and we got good results.”

 The Preliminary Round began on Wednesday with Pool A (the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, India, Iran, and Australia) and Pool B (Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, and Hong Kong) competing in respective groups, before heading into a rest and recovery day on Monday, May 27.

The two top teams of each pool will make up the Final Four in the semi-finals on May 28, while the remaining teams will look for their best possible finish with the 5th-8th semi-finals. The least-ranked teams of each pool will face off in the classification match for the 9th-10th places.

The finals are slated for May 29, when the eventual champion earns the right to return to Manila, as it confirms its slot for the Volleyball World Challenger Cup, scheduled for July 4-7, 2024.