Lonneke Sloetjes led The Netherlands with 26 points in the victory over China
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 6, 2016 – The Netherlands edged China in five sets 3-2 (25-23, 21-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-13) in a match of Pool B at the women’s volleyball tournament of Rio 2106 Olympic Games on Saturday.
Lonneke Sloetjes finished with 26 points as the main scorer for the winning squad, followed by Anne Buijs and Robin DeKruijf who had 13 and 11 points. China’s Zhu Ting had 24 points in the losing cause, while Gong Xiangyu added 11 in the loss.
China held the advantage in blocks 15-9 and also in serves 6-3 but the winners got the top hand in spikes 67-61.
The Dutch side took the close first set spearheaded by Buijs and Sloetjes, who commanded the scoring with 7 and 6 points.
China used their high blocking to dominate the second set from the start and did no gave the opponent any chance to get back into the game with Xu Yunli and Yang Ni leading the defence at the net.
The big serves by China translated into more solid blocks in the third set despite the consistent attacks by Buijs and Sloetjes.
Setter stats: The Netherlands
Setter stats: ChinaSloetjes scored key points to maintain the Netherlands with a slight lead after an evened score at 18-18, but at the end it was Celeste Plak with two big spikes who gave the Europeans the fourth set.
It was a fantastic tie-breaker with both sides battling hard for the victory. At 12-12, a China’s attack sailed long and Sloetjes scored for a two-point lead and Netherlands closed the fifth set 15-13.