Chinese Taipei's Wu Tsung-Hsuan attacks past the block of Puerto Rico's Kevin Lopez.
Kozani, Greece, June 17, 2016 - Chinese Taipei got off to a cracking start in their FIVB World League debut, downing Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-20, 30-28, 25-15) for Group 3 in the Greek city of Kozani.
Both Chinese Taipei and Puerto Rico will meet for the first time at the World League as Chinese Taipei kicks off its debut in the competition. Puerto Rico is heading to its fourth season, previously competing in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Their best result was 16th place back in their debut year 2011.
It was plain sailing from there on for the Asian side, who had a trio bringing in the points: Wu Tsung-Hsuan with 14, Chen Chien-Chen with 13 and Liu Hong-Jie with 12. Puerto Rico’s Steven Morales was top scorer of the game with 20 points, including 65% (17/26) in attacking. But the NORCECA teams undoing was a full set’s-worth of points conceded on unforced errors.
Puerto Rico blew a chance to tie the game at 1-1 as Chinese Taipei came back in the second set from six points behind to lead for the first time 23-22 before going on to survive four set points and extend their lead to 2-0. A couple of kills by Chen Chien-Chen and Liu Hung-Min, plus a triple block to finish the set, retained the status quo.