China's team at the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League have made great progress after 12 games in the past three weeks, head coach Cai Bin has said.

"We have achieved a lot," Cai said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on Monday. "We are a new team and need a consistent starting lineup. We have played against European, American and Asian opponents this time. We had some good performances, but saw some problems too."

The coach revealed that it took the national team about two months to build out their framework at a training camp in Zhangzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. After that, they concentrated on exercising and tactics, with the Nations League in the Philippines providing a great opportunity for the team to undergo further refinement and find solutions to problems.

"Only Gong Xiangyu and Yuan Xinyue in today's starting lineup used to play the same roles," Cai said. "Others were either backups or rarely made many appearances in the national team. So they need to build chemistry in international games."

"They were connected with each other and maintained a high spirit in both advantageous and disadvantageous situations. I myself kept communicating with players on the court. We have made good progress in these areas." 

Cai admitted that the team still has a lot to work on some of the details of the game, especially in their control of the pace, a deficiency that was responsible for their loss to Thailand.

He used three spikers during the Nations League to ensure the success rate of first passes. The players' actual performances were acceptable on this front, as the coach had expected, but some were still poor and often led to turnovers. Cai said he won't rule out the possibility of appointing new spikers in coming games.

Cai told Xinhua that China must count on teamwork with the current squad. Therefore, the role of middle blocker is integral to the team. So is the setter. Diao Linyu and Ding Xia, as the franchise's top options in the setter position will appear in different games because they have different skills.

China will play against Italy in the quarterfinals of the Nations League. When they beat the European powerhouse previously, the opponents didn't have their best player Paola Egonu.

"We will do our best and analyze Italy's game completely," Cai said. "Egonu has incredible individual abilities, and we will make special defensive designs for her. But we also need to have the confidence and courage to believe we can win."