Tianjin claimed its 13th championship in the Chinese Women's Volleyball League by defeating Jiangsu 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-21, 25-21) here on Friday.

With Friday's victory, Tianjin won the best-of-three finals by 2-1 led by Zhu Ting, captain of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Zhu signed with Tianjin in October 2020, before which she played at the Turkish women's volleyball club Vakifbank Istanbul for three seasons and won awards such as FIVB Club World Championships and CEV Champions League. 

Jiangsu had won the first leg, but the injury of key player Diao Linyu in the second leg diminished the team's strength.

Because of Diao's injury and no reserve setter to substitute, Jiangsu's head coach Cai Bin had to move Gong Xiangyu, who hadn't played as a setter for seven years, to that position.

The provisional setter turned out to be the weak point of Jiangsu. The team played tough and won the second set, but the third set saw Jiangsu's start spiker Zhang Changning also get injured.

Although Zhang insisted to be back on court and got a game high 30 points, she still couldn't save her team.

Tianjin demonstrated more powerful spikes and blocks, Li Yingying shared a game high 30 points, and Zhu Ting donated 26 points.

"To be honest, it really surprised me that we could brought one set back in today's game. Although we failed at the end, but we had already showed our strong will to fight," said Zhang Changning.

"Every player have gave her best and have overcame many difficulties during this 40-day tournament. From this point of view, everyone is a winner," said Zhu.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)