China, Serbia win 2nd straight games in Olympic women's volleyball qualifiers

NINGBO, China, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China and Serbia women's volleyball teams both tasted their second consecutive victories here on Sunday in Group A of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers.

Hosts China and Serbia now lead the group, in which only the top two finishers will directly qualify for Paris.

In Sunday's matches, China smashed Mexico 3-0, Serbia eased past Ukraine 3-0, the Dominican Republic edged Canada 3-2, and the Netherlands swept the Czech Republic 3-0.

In their third set against Mexico, China won by a huge margin of 25-7. Mexico could not cope with Chinese spiker Wang Yunlu's serve round, in which China took 10 points in a row.

"We played a bit tight against Ukraine yesterday. Today I told my players to play in a more relaxed state and they did so," said China head coach Cai Bin.

Despite the Hangzhou Asian Games being around the corner, Cai was reluctant to comment on how his side may make adjustments between the two major events.

"It's not the right time [to talk about it], now the only thing I focus on is the Olympic qualifiers," said the coach.