China secures World Grand Prix Finals berth with 8th straight win

China secured its berth in the 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix Finals after beating Poland in four sets here Saturday evening for its eighth straight win in the preliminary rounds of the women's volleyball tournament.

Zeng Chunlei scored 18 points to lead China to the 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 16-25, 25-23) victory and the Chinese side guided by star coach Jenny Lang Ping remained as the only team unbeaten in the preliminaries.

With only one round of matches left, China topped the standings with 23 points from eight wins, followed by Pool N opponent Serbia on 22 points from seven wins and a loss.

The Chinese women set off to a flying start as the 1.95-meter Xu Yunli had three blocks to help her team build a 10-3 advantage. Poland pulled within 13-9 with three unanswered points before China regained the momentum through a spike of Liu Congcong. Then the host of the Pool N tournament in Wuhan held the lead to 24-18 and Zeng Chunlei converted on its second set point.

The second set was hotly contested as Poland staged a 7-3 run to cut its deficit to 19-18. Zeng came up big again to make it 20-18 in favor of China before the Chinese women ended up the set by winning three of the last four points.

Leading by two sets, Lang Ping replaced starting setter Shen Jingsi with Mi Yang from the beginning of the third set. However, the backup setter found it hard to deliver the balls well to her attackers. Falling behind 14-8 and 20-10, China dropped the set without much resistance.

Shen started again in the fourth set where the two sides traded leads to tie it at 21-all. Zhu Ting drove the ball out off bounds and Shen added an ace to give China a two-point lead before a serving mistake of Poland awarded China the match point. Ewelina Sieczka made a kill to pull Poland within 24-23, but Karolina Rozycka drove a ball long to surrender the match to China.

Katarzyna Skowronska-Dolata and Sieczka each contributed 18 points for Poland, which slipped to a 1-7 win-loss record in the World Grand Prix preliminaries.

China will play Serbia on Sunday to vie for the top place of the preliminary round while Poland faces Argentina, 3-0 loser to Serbia earlier on Saturday.