TIANJIN, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese international Duan Fang scored 27 points to lead Liaoning rally past Shandong 3-2 here on Thursday for their third straight win in the women's volleyball tournament of the 13th Chinese National Games.
Duan converted on 27 of her 57 attacking attempts in Liaoning's 16-25, 25-22, 27-25, 16-25 and 15-12 victory which secured the top place of Group G for them.
When Liaoning trailed by 12-11 in the decisive fifth set, Duan scored three unanswered points to make it 14-11. Then Shandong surrendered the match through a spiking error of Song Meili, who notched a game-high 29 points.
"We kept fighting throughout the match, we never gave up," said Liaoning's setter Ding Xia, an Olympic champion at the Rio Games. Ding left the court to take care of a minor injury to her knee when Liaoning trailed by 9-2 in the fourth set, but she came back later in the set and led teammates to victory in the tiebreaker.
"It was no big deal. I tried to confirm the situation and then returned to the court," Ding added. "I would like to help when our team was fighting. After I came back to play, I forgot the pain."
Veteran star spiker Wang Yimei contributed 13 points to Liaoning's third win in three days while another Olympic champion and middle blocker Yan Ni added 17.
In the other match of Group B, Beijing outlasted Shanghai in five sets. Beijing finished second in the group with two wins against one loss while Shanghai and Shandong were third and fourth respectively.
In Group A, reigning Chinese league champions Jiangsu crushed defending National Games champions Tianjin 3-0 and Zhejiang swept Fujian in straight sets. Jiangsu won Group A with a 3-0 win-loss record and Zhejiang, Tianjin and Fujian were second to fourth.
In Saturday's quarterfinals, Liaoning will take on Fujian with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin playing Shandong, Shanghai and Beijing respectively.
