Youth Olympic Volleyball: Singapore girls put up a strong fight to finish sixth

Story by Kenneth Tan/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Wednesday, August 25, 2010 — Despite a 1-3 loss to Egypt in the fifth and sixth place playoff and finishing last out of six countries, the Singapore girls’ volleyball team put up a strong fight against the Egyptians in front of the 1,100-strong crowd in the Youth Olympic Games.

After trailing 4-5 at the start of the first set, they managed to come from behind to lead 8-7 at the first technical timeout. They extended the lead by another point to lead 16-14 at the second technical timeout.

Captain Joelle Lim’s (#1) excellent reflexes helped Singapore maintain the lead, taking the first set 25-20.

However, that was the only set they managed to take off Egypt as they lost the subsequent three sets. Singapore could not adapt to Egypt’s playing style, constantly falling behind in the game. Despite that, the girls gave the crowd something to cheer about in every set as they refused to give up the fight and constantly whittled down Eygpt’s lead.

Some individual mistakes by Singapore allowed Egypt to take six straight points at the start of the second set. Even though the hosts managed a 4-0 run towards the end of the set, they were unable to catch up to Egypt, handing Egypt the second set 18-25.

Singapore suffered a bad start to the third set, twice conceding four successive points to trail 3-8 at the first technical timeout. They managed to reduce the deficit to four points at the second technical timeout, but still trailed 19-23 towards the end of the set before Egypt landed the last two points to win the set.

Singapore conceded five straight points at the start of the fourth set and trailed 2-8 at the first technical timeout. They briefly pulled back to 7-10 before conceding the next series of points, making it 9-16 at the second timeout.

Even though the Singapore girls managed to pull it back to 19-23, they could not last the fight and lost the last two points to concede the set and the game.

Coach Low Ho Peng, who has 30 years of coaching experience, thought the girls could have gone further with their ability.

Referring to the previous loss against Japan, he said: “If they played to their best ability, they could given Japan a fight. It was a changed team from the one that beat China 3-0 in the Asian Youth Girls’ Championship. It was just that we cannot adapt to the opponents’ style just like today.”

Meanwhile setter Cassandra Ng (#4) paid tribute to the crowd that turned up.

“It’s very good! It’s more than our previous matches and they’re louder!” she said.

When asked about the excellent team spirit, she said: “We stay together a lot and had a Korean training trip in July, so it brings us together. We’re not as good when we play against better players. but we always try to stay together as a team.”

When asked about the sacrifices for the Youth Olympics, she said, “Since we have school, we have to train at night. Only on Saturdays, we can train in the day, so we have to sacrifice our time with family and friends.”

Cassandra also revealed that she learnt a lot from participating in the Games.

“I get to see a lot of good players. For example, USA’s setter has very good service while Belgium’s setter has experience,” she said.

Family members of Ang Qi Hui (#10) also turned up to support the team. “On a personal basis, I’m very proud of Qi Hui,” said her elder brother Ang Song Kih. “I saw them running for every ball, even for those went almost to the spectators’ stand!”

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