China stunned by Italy at FIVB Women's World Championship

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Despite saving five match points, China fell short against Italy with a 2-3 loss (18-25, 25-21, 16-25, 31-29 and 15-17) in Yokohama, Japan at the semifinals of the FIVB Women's World Championship on Friday night.

Italian ace spiker Paola Egonu nailed a match-high 44 points along with assists of Miryam Sylla's 23 points and Anna Danesi's 12.

China's captain, Zhu Ting, grabbed 26 points, followed by Yan Ni's 17 and Yuan Xinyue's 16.

Italy entered the second technical timeout (TTO) of the first set leading 16-12 before cruising to a 25-18 win. China would claw back to win the second set and even the match 1-1.

In the third set, China held an 8-6 advantage at the first TTO, but Italy responded to hold a 12-16 lead by the second TTO before going on to claim the set 25-16 on an ace by Egonu.

In a seesaw fourth set, the two teams were locked in a back-and-forth battle for set point with draws of 23-23, 25-25, 28-28, 29-29. China eventually sealed the set 31-29 with a spike by Yan Ni and a kill by Zhu Ting.

Another string of draws played out in the final set in a battle for match point. Egonu scored on two consecutive spikes to give the Italians the win, 17-15. They will face Serbia in the final round.

"In the end, we lost an excellent match. Our players played very hard. We have many players with potential and need them to play to a higher level. We will do our best tomorrow," said China coach Lang Ping after the game.

"It's too bad we lost. It was an excellent match. We will try hard tomorrow to play better than today," said China captain Zhu Ting.

Italy coach David Mazzanti said he was happy for the great opportunity to play in the final and the game was a tough match.

China will face the Netherlands for a bronze medal on Saturday.