Seoul, Korea, June 16, 2018 – Australia seized the opportunity to take the win in their nail-biting four-setter against China at the FIVB Volleyball Nations League on Saturday.
Australia coach Mark Lebedew: “It was really a nice match. It was exciting to watch this tough and exciting match today. We fought to the last breath and I’m happy with the performance of the team. It wasn’t the best game we played but we fought really hard in many difficult moments. I am really pleased with the victory.”
Australia captain Paul Carroll: “Today was a harsh battle. The first three sets might have gone either way. Not often can we say that not a single point or play can change the match. China had the second set. They made an amazing spike and our libero made an amazing defence. Transition of this point brought us to victory. If our libero didn’t save this point, we might have lost today’s match. In the third set they came back with a good blocking plan. They were able to play with their strong block. We are happy that we can come out to win in such a harsh battle.”
China coach Raul Lozano: “Congratulations to Australia. They performed better than us today. I think we played equally in the first three sets. We had opportunities to win the match but could not seize these moments. The big difference was that they were more clever and smarter than us in critical moments.”
China captain Ji Daoshuai: “Congratulations to Australia. It’s such a pity that in some moments we were not able to seize the opportunity especially when the score was tied. I think we didn’t prepare enough to get a victory. This is how the game goes, it can go either way.”