The 2024 Women's Volleyball U20 Asian Championship kicked off in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province and ended the first day of competition. In the end, the Kazakhstan women's volleyball team in Group A, the Japanese women's volleyball team in Group B, the Thai women's volleyball team in Group C and the South Korean women's volleyball team in Group D defeated their respective opponents and got off to a good start. The Chinese U20 women's volleyball team had a bye on the first day and will play on the second day.
Due to the large difference in the level of Asian volleyball, Japan, South Korea and Thailand all defeated India, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam 3-0 in the top three, and Kazakhstan, which is in the same group as China, won Australia in five games. It was arguably the best game of the round, as Kazakhstan came from behind twice to tie the score, winning the deciding game 16-14 18-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21, 16-14.
In Group B, Japan swept India 25-14, 25-11 and 25-11, and although they won, head coach Hiroyuki Yamaguchi was not satisfied with the team's performance, he felt that the team was a little nervous in the first two games, and the third game began to slowly enter the state; In Group C, Thailand and Vietnam were locked in the first two games, with Thailand finding their groove in the third game comfortably winning 25-23, 25-22, 25-13, while South Korea comfortably won their first group stage in Group D 25-13, 25-18, 25-17.
The Chinese women's volleyball team will appear on the second match day, and the first opponent is the Kazakhstan team. According to the format, the top two teams in the group advance to the quarterfinals, and since Kazakhstan and Australia played five games, the Chinese team only needs to keep a clean sheet or win 3-1 to have a chance to win the group. In terms of strength, neither Kazakhstan nor Australia is the opponent of the Chinese team.
According to the official list announced by the Asian Volleyball Federation, the Chinese team is headed by Kuang Qi, and the captain is Wang Yindi, who is Shanghai Ying. In addition, Li Chenxuan, Duan Mengke, Shan Linqian, Chen Houyu, Fan Boning and others who participated in the league have all entered the squad. The average age of the Chinese team is 18 years old, the average height is 186cm, the highest height is 196cm, the average smash height is 307cm, and the average blocking height is 300cm. Among them, Duan Mengke even reached a smash height of 320cm.
The biggest opponent of the Chinese U20 women's volleyball team is still the Japanese team. The Japanese women's volleyball team often wins championships in youth competitions by relying on solid basic skills. However, in the previous World Youth Championships and U17 women's volleyball games, the Chinese team has beaten the Japanese team three times in a row, and if the Chinese U20 women's volleyball team can defeat Japan, it will achieve "four consecutive kills".