U.S. women's volleyball team beats Chinese squad

By News Services

At Nanjing, China: Foluke Akinradewo scored 18 points as the U.S. women's national training volleyball team defeated JiangSu, a professional Chinese club team, 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 on Wednesday at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics to conclude the team's eight-match exhibition tour of China. Team USA finished the tour with a 5-3 record.

"This was a good final match for us in China against a challenging team," U.S. Women's National Team coach 'Jenny' Lang Ping said. "JiangSu's attack was very quick, but we studied the video of last night's match and made some adjustments today that were very effective. We had more success blocking their quick attack and maintained our concentration better throughout the match today."

The U.S. victory evened the two-match series with JiangSu, which won Tuesday's match in four sets. Jiangsu won a recent league tournament and defeated the China Army team in one of the preliminary rounds. Team USA defeated the China Army twice on the tour of China.

Team USA's three-week training tour of China was designed to allow the coaches to evaluate a younger group of players in preparation for Olympic Games roster selections. The U.S. qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games, held Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, by finishing with a bronze medal at the 2007 FIVB World Cup.