Chinese international Jiang Chuan scored team high 28 points to lift Beijing over Henan 3-1 in Tianjin on Friday in the men's volleyball tournament of the 13th Chinese National Games. [Special coverage]
Jiang had 16 points to help the defending champions win the first two sets at 25-17 and 25-21. Henan managed to limit Jiang to three points in the third set to pull one set back at 25-22, only to find Jiang come back with nine points in the fourth where Beijing prevailed 25-18.
"Liu Libin and I just came back from the national team. We've both got some good experience from the recent international tournaments," said Jiang, who was the top scorer of the Chinese team that secured a berth of next year's World Championships through a recent qualifying tournament in Iran. "We are both hitters, so we are trying our best to help the team in attack."
"Today I was trying to use my strength, but I think I need to improve my combination with the setter and the team," he added. "Hopefully I can play better in the next few games."
Beijing coach Li Mu expected his spikers to play better as a team after their opening win in Group A.
"Our players are in good shape, but we need to improve team combination and cooperation," he said.
Eight teams are playing in two preliminary round robin groups in the men's volleyball tournament with the placings to decide the matchups of the teams in the knockout stage.
