China finishes 4th at Asian women's volleyball tournament

SEOUL - China finished fourth at the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 loss to South Korea (25-21, 25-20, 25-22) on Sunday.

In order to support its young players' development, China sent a reserve team to join this year's event. China took a confident lead in the first set but struggled to deal with the pressure in the back-and-forth after the captain Kim Yeon-Koung pulled her team out of a 5-2 hole with three consecutive spikes.

After South Korea dragged the tie to 19-19, Kim contributed four ferocious attacks of South Korea's next five points and Ha Hye-jin's spike closed out the set for South Korea at 25-21.

South Korea kept its momentum in the second set, taking the dominance with many deadly spikes and blocks. Though China's Diao Linyu chased a point back when South Korea first got the setpoint, Kim Yeon-Koung attacked quickly and ended up the second set at 25-20.

Regardless of trailing the first two points of the third set, China kept things tight, with neither team leading by more than two points again until South Korea's Kim Yeon-koung scored on three straight spikes to put South Korea ahead 20-19. In the end, South Korea won the third set at 25-22 and finished third at this year's events with a straight-set victory over China.

In the championship final held later Sunday, Japan defeated Thailand 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-18, 25-23) for its second straight title.

The next major event for South Korea is the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament in January. With two of the continent's best, China and Japan, having already secured spots at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, South Korea, and Thailand, budding rivals in the region, are expected to contend for the one spot at stake at the qualifiers.