The Gold Medal Match Video:

Coming Soon.

Per FIVB:

Tijuana, Mexico, October 12, 2013 – China completed a successful voyage around the women’s age-group categories capturing the gold medal at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s U23 World Championship Open with a straight-set (25-21, 25-20, 26-24) victory over the Dominican Republic on Saturday.

The triumph was the third for the Chinese female teams in this year following the titles attained in Thailand (Girls U18) and Czech Republic (Women’s U20).

China won all their six matches in the competition held in the cities of Mexicali and Tijuana and their accomplished setter and captain Yao Di was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the event.

“The match was played at a very high level and could have gone to either side,” China’s coach Xu Jiande commented. “Tonight the luck worked in our favor.”

“The silver medal has a great value for us as a small country,” Dominican Republic’s coach Marcos Kwiek said. “We finished ahead of big countries like USA, Japan and Brazil and these girls have worked hard during all these years.”

Liu Yanhan and Zhang Xiaoya each recorded 17 points to lead the Chinese team, followed by Yang Zou with 9 points and Gu Xinwei and Wang Qi with 8 apiece.

Brayelin Martinez and Jeoselyna Rodriguez finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Dominican side. Candida Arias and Yonkaira Peña each contributed 7 tallies.

China held an overwhelming advantage of 11-4 in the blocking category with Yang and Zhang leading the charts with 4 and 3, respectively.

In the match for the bronze medal, Japan scored a convincing 3-1 (25-16, 20-25, 25-11, 25-19) victory over United States.

Saori Takahashi and Yurie Nabeya each tallied 16 points in the winning effort and Sarina Koga added 13. The American Gina Mancuso, the leading scorer for the competition, finished with 13 points.

“It was very tough for us because USA is a very talented team” Japan’s coach Shigekazu Okubo said. “We are in the middle of the road and want to continue moving on.”

“They (Japan) are a great model and we were hoping that they would inspire us to have that kind of effort,” USA’s coach Karch Kiraly said.

In the early matches on Saturday, Turkey beat Italy 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-22) in the match for the fifth position and Brazil defeated Germany 3-1 (25-20, 25-17, 20-25, 25-15) for the seventh place.

Final Ranking

Gold: China
Silver: Dominican Republic
Bronze: Japan

4th United States
5th Turkey
6th Italy
7th Brazil
8th Germany
9th Cuba
10th Argentina
11th Mexico
12th Kenya

All-Star Team

Setter: Yao Di (China)
Opposite Hitter: Jeoselyna Rodriguez (Dominican Republic)
Outside Spikers: Brayelin Martinez (Dominican Republic) and Sarina Koga (Japan)
Middle Blockers: Yang Zhou (China) and Zhang Xiaoya (China)
Libero: Brenda Castillo (Dominican Republic)
Most Valuable Player: Yao Di (China)

Click HERE for complete tournament info.