Jenny Lang Ping and her girls' efforts behind the 3-1 victory over Japan

Chinese players celebrate after beating Japan to win the women's volleyball World Cup in Nagoya, Japan, on Sept 6, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

In the absence of three key players, including the former captain, how 55-year-old Jenny Lang Ping and her girls spent the 20 days before winning against arch-rival Japan with 3-1 and getting the world title at the 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup is unimaginable, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

The three players, namely, former captain Hui Ruoqi, Yang Fangxu and Xu Yunli, all mean a lot to Chinese national women's volleyball team. Hui Ruoqi and Yang Fangxu helped the country claim the silver medal in last year's World Championship, while Xu Yunli helped China rank the third place at Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Facing this, Jenny Lang Ping, whose nickname is "Iron Hammer", hasn't given up on her undermanned team and is preparing for the upcoming battles at the 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup by boosting the confidence of her girls.

Head coach Lang Ping and her girls met first challenge after failing to beat US women's volleyball team on Aug 24, 2015, two days after the start of the 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup.

The girls couldn't help crying in the face of the failure, but Lang Ping rallied them around and said: "Calm down, girls, it's still too far to see who will win, since we can learn lessons from this failure", after analyzing Chinese team's problems during the game and thinking about the solution.

Behind encouraging words and smiles, the head coach watched the video of that game until late night and just had a two-hour light sleep.

Assistant coach Lai Yawen knew the efforts made by the 55-year-old Lang, who spent less than four hours sleeping every day during the World Cup.

"Lang Ping has to study the videos showing the other countries' players' movements and skills every night to get ready for every potential challenge," said Lai.

The 55-year-old is not alone, her girls returned with a determination to fight until the end.

During the games between China and South Korea, Chinese ace spiker Zhu Ting, 21, asked for return to join the game after the rival took the lead when she was absent due to a feet injury during the game.

Zhu said: "The injury is not a big deal, I can play" in response to Lang and other coachers' concern that her injury may worsen if she got out on the court again. Though she limped after each spike, she helped the team win that game.

Until the next day after beating South Korea, Zhu said: "My ankles were really in pain, but I endured it."

It's the team's fighting spirits that helped the once-frustrated group get the first world title China has clinched since its gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

This world title was gained by beating arch-rival Japan, which had beaten the Chinese national women's volleyball team 3-2 at the quarterfinal of 2012 London Olympics.

Now with eight victories and two losses at the games against Japan under Lang Ping's guidance since 2013, the Chinese girls beat Japan at all the four games this year.