China defeated Thailand 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 25-14, 23-25 and 15-10) in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Women's Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig, the Philippines, on Sunday to reach the final of the tournament.

China will face the winner between Vietnam and Japan in the final match on Monday.

Unlike most teams that sent the backup squads to the AVC Cup this year, Thailand came with almost their best franchise. They gave China a head-on blow in the first set with their sharp serves and powerful hits, winning the set 25-19.

Thailand started the second set with a lead (7-5) again, but Wu Mengjie's hits and blocks reversed the situation for China to lead 11-7 after scoring six straight points. Zhuang Yushan joined Wu to continue pin down the opponents until their team won this set 25-20 to tie the match 1-1.

China followed up victory with hot pursuit in the third set as Hu Mingyuan established an impenetrable wall in front the net. Meanwhile, Thailand couldn't launch effective offense thanks to Zhuang Xinru's serves. It didn't take long for China to win this set 25-14 and lead 2-1 in the final.

Thailand found their rhythm back in the fourth set while China kept making mistakes on both ends until they trailed 23-17. Though Zhuang and her teammates worked hard enough to cut the deficit to one points (24-23), they couldn't atop the opponents from tying the total score 2-2.

Thailand failed to carry their good form to the final set and started making erros from the beginning. China exploited their mistakes effectively to establish a 5-3 lead and then managed to keep a safe five-point lead until winning the set 15-10 in the end.