China inches toward gold after beating Netherlands

Chinese volleyballers celebrate after winning semifinals, Aug 18, 2016. China beats Netherlands 3-1 during volleyball women's semifinals at Rio Olympics. [Photo by Wei Xiaohao/chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese women's volleyball team keeps the country's hope alive of winning a gold medal of team sport at Rio Games by beating the Olympic semifinal newcomers, the Netherlands, 3-1 on Thursday.

Gong Xiangyu, the youngest player in legendary coach Lang Ping's squad, burst into tears after pulling down the penultimate point with a spike to help China win 27-25, 23-25, 29-27, 25-23 in 116 minutes.

"It's a tough battle today. We took all possibilities into consideration including falling behind and playing a full five-set. We told our girls to never quit and hang on to the last second, and they made it!" Lang Ping, head coach of Chinese team, said.

"Games like today are very rare during my coaching life. It was amazing," said Lang.

China's Zhu Ting had a match-high 33 points and captain Hui Ruoqi finished with 12 points and an ace out of 27 serves, while no other Chinese reached the double digit.

After losing to the opponents in the group stage, China attached great importance to the game.

"We were not fully prepared for our first match against Netherlands. But today's fight is too important to be careless. It matters so much and we have nothing to do but fight," Lang said

China suffered a slow start in the semifinal clash, coming back from trailing 12-5 before scoring six points in a row to narrow the margin. They later overtook the lead 19-17 with a set fault from Laura Dijkema but had to see themselves denied four set points with some brilliant moves from the Netherlands, including an ace from Anne Buijs, before Zhu Ting spiked twice to earn China the 27-25 win.