Italy players block a shot from China during their match in the FIVB World Championship. (photo courtesy of China men's volleyball team official weibo account)
China were ousted by Italy in three straight sets at the FIVB World Championship.
LJUBLJANA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese men's volleyball team bowed out of the FIVB World Championship after suffering their third loss against Italy 25-14, 25-10, 25-14 here on Wednesday.
Italy dominated the match from the very beginning while a quick 8-2 run pushed China to demand an urgent pause from head coach Wu Sheng. China then caught up with a 10-10 rally, before Italy launched another run of 7-2 to take the opening set 25-14.
Italy started the second set with a ruthless 9-1 run. Wu's team earned only 10 points, with five of them coming from their opponents' errors.
Italian captain Simone Giannelli's serves helped the team lead the third set 6-0, but China's young players narrowed the gap to three points with a 9-6 bounce.
Italy then scored five straight points benefitting from outside hitter Daniele Lavia's tough serves to reach match point at 24-13. China finally lost the set 25-14 after a serving error by captain Yu Yaochen.
Three Italians scored double digits. China's team high was only six points by three players, and three main blockers combined for only four points.
"The game proves how far we are behind the world's top teams," said Wu. "The Italians were much better in every aspect. They are tall and smart to penetrating our blocking. We don't have any better solutions in defense."
Wu was sanguine in defeat, saying: "We were not expecting anything surprising from the match against a team like Italy. The disappointing thing is that we are far from playing to our best. We didn't have any chance in counterattacking." ■
