Thai Ladies Volleyball: Heartbreak on the Tokyo Express

[Frank James]

It has been pure agony to watch our Thai Ladies National Volleyball Team get pounded twice more in the World Championships in Tokyo. Getting beat by the Dominicans in the first round seemed to set the tone for bad days to come, as the ladies have since been shaded by the Brazilians (that was expected, and amounted to their worst showing) the Japanese, and this morning, a hard fought five set struggle against the Americans.

They had to play a midday match in front of a sparse crowd after narrrowly losing to Japan the night before, with a packed house cheering on the home team. They were quite evenly matched against Japan, who they defeated twice in Korat, but this time, the Japanese team, clad in their home court Rising Sun Red uniforms, stayed in control throughout. The scoring was close, but it was apparent which were the more inspired, driven team on the floor on Friday night. There were looking to avenge their poor showing in Thailand, and they did so.

The loss to World's Number Three USA was especially tough. Our side played in their old loose, freewheeling style, winning strong in the first and fourth sets. Suddenly it was Set 5, the shortened tiebreaker (Heart breaker!), in which the match is played to only 15 points, with the squads changing court ends at the halfway point. Somehow, the USA ladies regained the momentum, after being down two critical points. They went on to win. This was the kind of hard loss you remember for years.

This was a tough one to watch. The ladies are improving every match, and it isn't exactly clear where the problems lie. Onuma (Number 6) has played like a scoring machine throughout the series, and Bamee (Number 12) has been especially impressive. In this match Onuma had a collision with Thatdao (Number 4) and will likely have a swollen, painful cheekbone tonight. As always, she stayed on the court every minute of every set, an inspiring example of playing through the pain. We're still not seeing enough scoring production from Pleumjit, who still does that thing with the fake shot, when she would do better to just smack the ball, as she did so strongly in Korat.

Sunday morning at 10:00 AM, the ladies go toe to toe with the mighty team from Russia. Once again, they will be considered extreme underdogs. Perfect. They can win, by playing fast and loose like there's no tomorrow. If you can't be on the winners stand, at least you can cause some mischief for the top dogs.

Chok dee Ladies. Viva Thailand. We love you.