VNL 2023: China Continues Winning Streak in Homesoil

China continued their winning streak in the VNL 2023 as they defeated Bulgaria 3-1 in front of their home fans on June 16. The match saw China extend its undefeated streak to six in a row. Although Bulgaria won the first set with a score of 25-20, they lost the next three sets with scores of 25-7, 25-10, and 25-15 respectively. Li Ying-ying was the top scorer for the winning team, scoring 18 points.

After the match, Lorenzo Micelli, the coach of the Bulgarian team, spoke to our journalist about the reason for their loss. He mentioned that in sets 2 and 3, they couldn’t organize themselves, and it was impossible to recover against China, a team with a big gap in skills. Micelli also mentioned that their team is facing injury problem, where their opposite cannot play all the matches, but he said that it was not the main reason for their loss. He admitted that China started playing like China, and that’s why they lost after winning the first set.

Li Ying Ying, the star player for China, praised her team’s resilience after they didn’t play well in the first set, but adjusted quickly to perform well in the later sets. However, she was not satisfied with her own performance and said that her attack was too slow. She hoped to adjust herself faster in the following match to help the team.

China is set to face Poland in their next match on June 17, while Bulgaria will play against Netherlands on June 18, which will be their last match in week 2. Li Ying-ying acknowledged that they expected a tough match against Poland, but the whole team would try their best regardless of the outcome.

(Reported by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)