China’s Hanyu Yang Named MVP of U20 Championships

FIVB Women’s U20 World Championship

• July 14-24, 2017
• Cordoba, Mexico
• Schedule/Results

China won the 2017 U20 World Championship with a sweep of previously unbeaten Russia on Sunday, but that wasn’t the only action at the tournament in Mexico.

Placings were decided from 1-16 and an all-tournament team was named.

Full standings

1.       China

2.       Russia

3.       Japan

4.       Turkey

5.       Brazil

6.       Poland

7.       United States

8.       Bulgaria

9.       Italy

10.   Serbia

11.   Dominican Republic

12.   Argentina

13.   Mexico

14.   Peru

15.   Cuba

16.   Egypt

China’s Hanyu Yang was named MVP of the tournament after leading her team to the title.

“I am honored with this award; I really was not expecting it,” Yang said. “It was not easy to be chosen back home to be part of this team and now with an international recognition, I hope to continue bringing more medals for my country; my goal is to be part of the senior national team. We prepared well before coming here and I am not the only one who should take the credit for this title. We were focused for the entire tournament and we never felt nervous. The crowd’s support was very helpful and we are grateful.”

In addition to Yang, six other players were named to the FIVB U20 World Championship team.

Dream Team

Setter: Tamaki Matsui (Japan)

Opposite: Anna Kotikova (Russia)

Outside Spikers: Wu Han (China) and Tugba Senoglu (Turkey)

Middle Blockers: Zehra Gunes (Turkey) and Hanyu Yang (China)

Libero: Alexandre Costa Nyeme (Brazil)

The top individual match performance, a 32-point effort, came from Serbia’s Katarina Lazovic vs. the United States on July 16. Lazovic put down a match-high 27 kills, while adding four blocks and an ace.

Gunes posted the top blocking effort with 11 stuffs in Turkey’s match against Argentina on July 15. That match also produced the top team blocking performance of the tournament as Turkey turned in 22 stuffs.

Cuba’s Dalila Palma served up a tournament-best eight aces against Egypt on July 20 to lead that category. Bulgaria posted the best serving effort of the event with 19 aces against Mexico on July 16.