After an auspicious start in its opening Pool B contest against Poland, the Japan women's volleyball team dropped three straight sets and lost 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26). The match was played before a packed house on Sunday, July 28, at South Paris Arena 1.
Poland, ranked fourth in the world, bested seventh-ranked Japan with a power game that combined strong attacks with excellent blocking. Japan battled gamely to stay in the contest, but had difficulty offsetting its size disadvantage in the Paris Games match.
Japan made some excellent saves and attacked well throughout the match, but appeared on the backfoot for the majority of the final three sets after winning the opening set decisively.
Middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk (200 cm) and opposite hitter Magdalena Stysiak (203 cm) provided a formidable 1-2 punch for Poland, scoring 20 points and 18, respectively, in the victory.
"We expected this match to be tough, but it was much harder than I thought," Poland's Natalia Medrzyk stated.
She added, "We are taller, but they are excellent defenders and we needed a lot of patience against them to understand that we would almost never score in our first attempt and that we would need to find solutions."
Koga Shines for Japan Volleyball Squad
Captain Sarina Koga paced Japan with a match-high 26 points, while Mayu Ishikawa added 16 in the loss.
"The first set went really well for us, but once their blocking got better things became more complicated," Koga commented. "They got several blocks and we couldn't find many answers."
Added Koga, "We had our chance to come back in the fourth set, but we made some errors that we could have avoided. We had a talk after the match and I'm sure we will remain motivated and confident for our next matches."
Late Surge Lifts Japan in Opening Set
The first set was tight until Japan pulled away late and took it 25-20 with Koga scoring seven points.
Poland answered by capturing the second set 25-22, and Japan appeared deflated early in the third as the Poles opened a 13-10 lead. However, Japan rallied late in the set before losing 25-23.
In the fourth set, Japan fell behind again before surging back to gain two set points at 25-24 and 26-25, only to succumb 28-26 in the end.
Japan committed 26 errors in the match to Poland's 20. The Poles tallied 14 points on blocks, while Japan had just five.
A Look Ahead
Japan's next Olympic match will be against Brazil on Thursday, August 1, while Poland will take on Kenya on Wednesday, July 31.
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.
