Players of China celebrate victory after the women's Pool B match between China and Turkey at the 2019 FIVB Tokyo Volleyball Qualification in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Jundong)
BEILUN, China, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China claimed the ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games following their 3-0 triumph over Turkey in the Tokyo Volleyball Qualification women's Pool B tournament here on Sunday.
Zhu Ting had 15 kills in 27 attempts to score a team-high 20 points while Zhang Changning contributed 16 points in China's 25-18, 25-12, 25-18 victory in only one hour and 15 minutes.
Ebrar Karakurt had 15 points for Turkey, but she couldn't get much help from teammates, as no other Turkish players scored double-digit points. Turkey committed 19 errors while China had only eight.
Prior to the match, both sides had two straight wins in the four-team round-robin pool, with the winner taking the ticket for the Tokyo Games.
It was China that took the initiative in the decisive match and led 14-9 on a spike by star spiker Zhu Ting in the opening set. After Turkey managed to claw it back at 14-16, China again extended the lead to 22-16 starting with a spike from setter Ding Xia, and took the set 25-18 as Cansu Ozbay's spike flied outside.
The following set was much easier for the Chinese team, as they led as many as 13 points and cruised to a comfortable win 25-12.
Turkey came back strongly in the third set and entered the first technical timeout at 7-8, only one point behind. China then enlarged the margin to 18-13 and took the set 25-18 after Zhu Ting served for an ace.
Earlier on Sunday, Germany stormed to a convincing three-set win over the Czech Republic, taking the match 25-18, 25-22 and 25-16.
