Chinese Army sails into men's semifinals at China club volleyball tournament

BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The unbeaten Chinese Army breezed into the men's semifinals at the China club volleyball tournament here on Friday.

The Chinese Army players, who were on high spirit after two successive wins, upset their last preliminary rival Liaoning 25-23,22-25, 25-20 and 25-17.

Liu Lantao, best scorer of Liaoning who contributed 17 points to his team, attributed the loss to the poor teamwork.

"Especially when we were taking the lead in the third and fourth sets, the teammates seemed to lose concentration," said Liu.

In the other men's match of the day, the five-time successive champion of the national volleyball league Shanghai, came from 2-1down to tame Henan after a five-set tussle.

After Friday's matches, the Chinese Army will be challenged by Henan in the semifinals on Saturday, while Liaoning will face Shanghai.

Despite the stunning victories over the stronger rivals of Shanghai, Henan and Liaoning, the top three of the national volleyball league, Chinese Army's head coach Li Yuanfei kept low-key while talking about the team's expectation at the tournament.

"I'm satisfied with the performance of my players and they do make improvement from every match," said Li. "However, that doesn't mean we're more powerful than our opponents as their several key players are absent from this event for the training at the national team."

The five-day Good Luck Beijing 2008 China club volleyball tournament is a test event for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with four men's teams and as many women's teams competing in the newly-renovated Capital Stadium and the Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium.

The semifinals and finals will be held at the Capital Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.