The tournament marks China’s debut in the 2013 with new coach, Xie Guocheng at the helm.

Luohe, China, May 22, 2013 – The China International Men’s Volleyball Tournament began in Luohe in the country’s Henan Province, yesterday.  After their win again Kazakhstan in the opening match, the men’s team seems well placed to follow in the footsteps of their female counterparts who won the first phase of the China International Women’s Volleyball Tournament on Sunday in Ningbo.

The tournament – which is being held from May 21 to 23 – will see China play against Kazakhstan, India. Australia was not able to participate in the tournament owing to a conflict in their schedule and were replaced by Henan Tianguan, a club in the Chinese volleyball league.

On the opening day, China won in straight sets against Kazakhstan (25-20, 25-23, 25-16), while India defeated the host club team, Henan Tianguan in a closely contested match (19-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-23,11-15).

“Though we won, I am not very satisfied with the process. We came into the role slowly and the cooperation was not so smooth. But we geared into the right way later through improving our serving, blocking and variety of attacking.” said coach Xie Guocheng, “The main target for this tournament is to give each player as much practice as possible in their position.”

Captain Zhong Weijun said, “We played in a bit of a hurried manner in the beginning. After all we only trained for just two weeks. But we adjusted ourselves well and took down the match.”

The tournament will take place in Luohe for another 2 days as per the following schedule:

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