SHAOXING, China, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Tianjin Bohai Bank of China scored its first victory, beating Dentil Praia of Brazil 3-2 at the FIVB Women's Club World Championship here on Thursday evening.
For another full-set match, Tianjin that lost its opener to Igor Gorgonzola Novara of Italy 3-2, became victorious this time, winning 25-21, 25-19, 22-25, 16-25, 16-14.
However, Tianjin had the worst news as star spiker Zhu Ting, who had 19 points, suffered an injury to her right wrist. Zhu left the court at the end of the third set and returned later on but sat out the whole decisive fifth set.
"It's a nagging injury for me. And I'm not sure whether I can play tomorrow or not," Zhu told Xinhua on the courtside.
Throughout the match, Tianjin had 12 blocks against six for Praia, and scored 25 points against 19 from opponents' errors.
Li Yingying made a team-high 23 points for Tianjin, with Destinee Hooker adding 19 and Wang Yuanyuan contributing nine points.
Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez scored a match-high 24 points for Praia, with teammate Fernanda Rodrigues adding 20 points.
Earlier in the afternoon, Igor Gorgonzola Novara of Italy had its second full-set victory, beating Vakifbank Istanbul of Turkey 25-21, 25-22, 25-27, 24-26 and 15-12 in two hours and 20 minutes.
Ever losing the third set 25-27, the Italian side still looked to be on the way to an easy success as the reigning European champions established a 16-6 lead in the fourth set, which Vakifbank astonishingly rallied to tie 23-all and took it 26-24.
However, Navara who won its opener 3-2 against Tianjin from two sets down on Tuesday, survived the tough challenge from the Turks as they led 10-5 en route to the 15-12 win in the decisive fifth set.
Opposite spiker Jovana Brakocevic scored a match-high 30 points for Novara, with middle blocker Stefana Veljkovic and wing spiker Megan Courtney adding 16 and 13 points respectively.
For the 2018 FIVB club world champion Vakifbank, opposite spiker Isabelle Haak had a team-high 29 points, middle blocker Zehra Gunes and wing spiker Ebrar Karakurt added 16 and 15 points respectively.
So far, Novara and Vakifbank had four points apiece, Tianjin accumulated three points and Praia scored its first point.
For the last round of Pool B matches on Friday, Novara will take on Praia in the afternoon while Tianjin plays Vakifbank in the evening.
After the single round-robin format, the top two teams from every pool will advance to the semifinals, with the last two teams from each of the pools vying for the 5-8 places. Enditem
