China suffers shock defeat in women's volleyball
China's women's volleyball team on Tuesday crashed out of the Paris Olympics, suffering a 3-2 defeat to Turkey in a nail-biting quarter-final clash at South Paris Arena 1.  China, who are three-time Olympic champions, claimed the first set 25-23 before dropping the next two.  They took the fourth set to force a tie-breaker, but fell short 15-12 in the deciding fifth set.  Melissa Teresa Vargas scored 42 points to lead the Turkish women to victory. It was tied 11-all in the fifth set before a smash of Vargas and a spiking error from Wu Mengjie of China pushed Turkey up 13-11.  Gong Xiangyu had a smash to pull China within 13-12, but another kill of Vargas and a smart play of Elif Sahin – who replaced injured starting setter Cansu Ozbay in the last three sets – sealed the victory for the Turkish. "Vargas played a great game," said China head coach Cai Bin. "We tried our best to stop her, but could not do that well enough."  Turkey next face Serbia or Italy in the semi-finals. (Additional reporting by Xinhua) _____________________________
Last updated: 2024-08-06 HKT 21:42 