TOKYO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese women's volleyball team beat its old opponent the United States at opening match of the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Grand Champions Cup held here on Tuesday.
Though losing the first set 18-25, China soon found its rhythm in the following three sets, winning 25-18, 25-14, 25-17 over the U.S..
Zhu Ting, China's star spiker and Olympic champion, scored 21 points, including 16 spikes and 4 blocks. Zhang Changning chipped in 17 points, and Zeng Chunlei 12 points.
Racheal Adams led the Americans with 13 points, including 12 spikes and 1 block.
"China played very well, but we did not play the way that we should have, and we need to do better from now on," said CarliLloyd, captain of the American team.
"My teammates and I played well today. We carried out very well the strategic instructions of our coach. We will summarize the experiences and prepare for later games," said Zhu.
"After losing the first set, we made quick adjustment and regained some initiative. Many thanks to experienced players in our team," said An Jiajie, Chinese coach.
He added that the Chinese team still showed some deficiency in blocking and handling the balls and the team will learn from highly-confrontational games such as the one with the U.S. to make progress.
Six teams played this year's FIVB Volleyball Women's World Grand Champions Cup from Sept. 5 to 10 in Japan.
In a game earlier on the day, defending champions Brazil beat Russia 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 25-12). Later, Japan is to play South Korea.
