Italy and Japan undefeated but it’s Korea that catches the eye on day two of qualifiers

Hosts Japan and Italy are the only two unbeaten teams after two days of the women’s volleyball Olympic qualifier in Tokyo, while Korea is the team that caught attention on Sunday.

Realistically Korea may have expected to lose their opening two matches this week, having drawn Italy and form team The Netherlands to kick the qualifiers off.

And after losing 3-1 to Italy on the opening day, few people could have expected what unfolded at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon.

Korea bounced back from the disappointment to post a shock 3-0 (29-27, 25-23, 25-21) win against The Netherlands, inspired by the heroics of captain Kim Yeon-Koung.

It wasn’t that the Koreans won that shocked, it was the 3-0 scoreline against a team who is considered one of the favourites to earn a ticket to Rio this week.

Yeon-Koung was outstanding with 24 points, with Dutch coach Giovanni Guidetti describing the Korean captain as ‘something special’.

One outcome that is becoming more obvious by the day is …

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