Australia clinched the final semifinal ticket in Pool A of the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup for Women with a thrilling 26-24, 23-25, 25-27, 31-29 marathon win over Iran on Sunday evening at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Volleyroos finished pool play with a 3-1 record and will face Pool B’s top-ranked team, Vietnam, in Tuesday’s semifinal action.
This win by the Australians also secured Alas Pilipinas the first seed in the group, regardless of the result of their game against Chinese Taipei today, which is being played as of publishing time.
“I think we just have a lot of trust in each other, and we all know our roles and execute them really well,” said Caitlin Tipping, as they battled back from a 17-23 deficit in the first set, 20-22 in the second, and 2-8 in the fourth.
“This is a huge accomplishment. This was our goal for the tournament, to make the top four,” added the 23-year-old outside hitter, who had 34 points on 30 attacks, three aces, and one block.
Tipping also carried her team in the second and fourth sets, scoring 10 and 13 points, respectively.
Australia held seven match points in the fourth set and ultimately finished the job in the last as Tipping delivered back-to-back crosscourt hits for the win in two hours and 25 minutes.
Ella Schabort almost secured the victory for the Volleyroos at 26-25 with a successful tip, but Iran challenged for a net touch.
Even though the challenge was deemed unsuccessful, the referees saw that Schabort overreached to make the tip, giving the Iranians the point and a 26-all scoreline.
Emma Burton provided backup to Tipping with 17 points, while Cassie Dodd continued her dominance at the net with five blocks, totaling 12 points.
The Iranians were relegated to the classification phase after ending up with a 1-3 record.
Aytak Salamat delivered 21 points, while Mobina Ghafarian and Reyhane Karimi scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, in the losing effort.
