Despite the fact that the Chinese media announced a legendary coach Lang Ping will return to the bench of their Women’s national team for the Grand Champions Cup, as a consequence of bad results at the last two tournaments (the 4th place in the 2017 Asian Championship and in the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix), An Jiajie remained at the helm.
But, a failure in the 2017 Grand Prix (the 5th place) forced the U.S. head coach Karch Kiraly to make some radical moves and return four Olympians who won the bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Rachael Adams, Foluke Akinradewo, Kimberly Hill and Jordan Larson, to the roster. Carli Lloyd was there for the Grand Prix. The quartet already regained the feeling of playing in the NT jersey at the recent USAV Cup.
Still, Kiraly’s shock therapy did not give an instant positive result as China won the Tokyo match, being superior in all sets which they won. The Asian side was especially dominant in blocking (14-5). Zhu Ting scored game-high 21 points (4 kill blocks) while Rachael Adams made 13 points.
See STANDINGS from World Grand Champions Cup 2017 W.
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