BEILUN, East China -- China must keep consistent form while facing a rampant Russian team at the FIVB Grand Prix Finals on Saturday.
China on Friday evening defeated Italy in a full-set thriller for the second straight win in the six-team round robin event slated for August 22-26.
The hosts, whose three matches were all ended in tie break, now improves their record to 2-1.
China coach Chen Zhonghe was not one hundred percent content with his players' performance, stressing that the team needed to elude sloppy play at crucial moments.
"Our serving and blocking were not good today, the younger players like Xue Ming, Ma Yunwen and Sun Xiaoqing are not mentally strong while veterans missed key points," he said.
"We are unable to seize the opportunity when we are in lead, and it should not have happened for professionals on this level. We have to improve in the remaining matches."
Russia was also back on winning track as they blitzed Poland 3-0 for the second straight win on Friday afternoon.
After edging past Brazil in the five-set thriller on Thursday, the world champions are fully fired up as their giant spikers Ekaterina Gamova and Elena Godina started to find range.
Russia coach Giovanni Caprara said he has hoped the team could maintain the same level in the match against China, who went down to Russia in Poland leg of the preliminaries on August 3.
Netherlands, whose giant-killing run at the FIVB Grand Prix continued as they stunned the three-time defending champions Brazil, will take on Poland on Saturday.
Following a 3-2 gruelling win over the hosts China and a lot more convincing 3-1 win against second ranked Italy, the Netherlands look to be at about the peak of their game, beating top ranked Brazil 19-25, 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 15-8.
"I hope we could find a way to jump to the next level, and glean up more confidence that they are a capable team," Netherlands coach Avital Selinger said on Friday, stressing that their goal was next match rather than winning the title.
Saturday's action also features Brazil against Italy, a life-and-death match as both teams need a win to stay in the title run. In their most recent clash in the FIVB World Grand Prix preliminaries, Brazil held off Italy in five sets.
Taismary Aguero, who scored a game-high 30 points on Friday, will probably be the most dangerous weapon of Italy in the clash slated for Saturday evening while the Brazilians will count on their balanced attack line led by Castro Sheilla.