Young bloods display skill, sweat and tears

With young talents honed and some tough lessons learned, China's new-look women's volleyball team kicked off its comeback to international contention with a hard test at the Volleyball Nations League showpiece.

Despite a tearful ending at the hands of its bitter rival Turkiye, China's fresh-faced squad signed off its first major international event in the new Olympic cycle at the VNL's Beijing leg with quite a positive takeaway, leaving fans and pundits alike buoyed by the young unit's growth potential in the build-up to the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

But even with the home crowd clapping on their feet to acknowledge their effort, Chinese players left the court unsatisfied with an opportunity wasted to avenge their quarterfinal loss to Turkiye at Paris 2024, after they let slip a 24-20 advantage in the fourth set, having led 2-1 overall, to lose 3-2 to the European champion on Sunday in the final match at the Beijing tournament.

It wasn't a disgrace at all for the rebuilt team to be narrowly defeated by the women's world No 3 and VNL's 2023 season winner, which provided a steep, yet helpful, learning curve for China's young hopefuls to grow.

"Given the gap between us and the Turkish team at the moment, expectations were not that high (before the match), but I think we proved tonight that we can at least put up a fight against them and make them work," China's outside hitter Zhuang Yushan said after the match at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium.

"We lost the match, but boosted our confidence. I think we will be braver facing world-class opponents in the next event," said Zhuang, who scored 24 points (21 kills, two blocks and one service ace) to lead the host on Sunday.

China's other outside hitter Wu Mengjie, despite walking off the court in tears, summed up the near-miss as a painful step forward.

"A loss like tonight stings for sure, but an experience like this is invaluable. We learned that we have to take care of the process better," said a weeping Wu, who scored 18 points in the match against Turkiye, which played in Beijing without its star spikers Melissa Vargas and Ebrar Karakurt.

Team China, led by new head coach Zhao Yong, eventually capped off the home VNL leg with two wins (over Belgium and France) and two losses (the other to Poland) to finish in seventh place after the first week of the 18-nation preliminary phase.

The next prelim stage takes place from June 16-22 in Hong Kong, where Team China will take on Japan, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Italy.

Citing the lack of international experience, Zhao calls for patience and support for his players to mature through ups and downs to gradually live up to fans' high demands for the celebrated national program.

"I think our players have stood up to the grind and made solid progress after four matches," said the 49-year-old former coach of domestic league team Liaoning, who was appointed the national squad's new boss in April.

"It's the first international meet at the senior level for a lot of our players. They do need a process to develop, in terms of handling key points under pressure and making the right adjustment mentally."

Zhao's appointment, replacing the squad's long-term mentor Cai Bin, and his call-up of 12 new players, who made their national team debut in Beijing, reflect the national governing body's resolve to revitalize the once glorious program, following a series of international flops in recent years, and bring it back into medal contention in time for the Olympic campaign at LA 2028.

Since winning its first World Cup in 1981, the Chinese women's team has collected a total of 10 world titles, including three Olympic gold medals (1984, 2004 and 2016) and two world championships (1982,1986), emerging as a source of inspiration for almost all walks of life across the country.

The home VNL event has served up a high-profile stage for some of the host's best young guns, particularly teen combo Zhang Zixuan and Wang Aoqian, to make their presence felt.

As the Chinese women's team's youngest starter in history, the 16-year-old setter Zhang stole the show in the host's opening game against Belgium by nicely setting up the offense play for four teammates to score in double digits in China's 3-0 win over the European team on last Wednesday.

"I was a little bit nervous at first, but the home fans' enthusiasm inspired me and helped me get myself into the game very quickly," said Zhang, who led China to win the FIVB Volleyball Girls' U17 World Championship in 2024.

Another teen prospect who turned heads at the Beijing meet was 17-year-old middle blocker Wang, who impressed coach Zhao and her senior teammates with composure and aggressiveness beyond her years.

"When coach Zhao asked me to warm up, I was so nervous that I felt like I was shaking, but my teammates helped calm me down," Wang said of her debut on Saturday in Team China's 3-0 victory over France where she contributed six points off the bench. "When attacking, I think I can contribute. Since the coach trusted me, I just gave it my all."

Zhao, a renowned mentor of young talents with his Liaoning team at the club level, took pride from the performances of the fresh blood.

"We needed to improve our middle attack, and Wang Aoqian has good chemistry with our setter Zhang Zixuan. For a 17-year-old playing her first big international match and being called upon during a tough moment she did really well," Zhao said.