Tijana Boskovic scored 32 points to guide a spirited Serbian side to a clean sweep in the second round at the 2018 FIVB women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL), beating China 3-1 (21-15, 25-23, 25-21, 25-17) in Macao, China on Thursday. As hosts, China was already assured of a place in the VNL finals, coach Lang Ping took the opportunity to give the court time to younger players in their 3rd match in Pool 7 in Macao.

Opting to rest, captain Zhu Ting, who's just returned to China after a successful season with the Turkish side VakifBank Istanbul, Lang Ping named Liu Xiaotong as the wing spiker and on-court skipper, with opposite hitter Duan Fang and liberto Lin Li also on the starting lineup.

China's 18-year-old spiker Li Yingying was also left out of the previous night's match in which China won 3-1 over Thailand and Lang held her back again on Thursday.

Liu and Duan were the focal points of China's offense. Duan's spike brought the hosts level at 3-3 in the opening set. Then she went on to bag 15 points in the match, which includes her point to make it 19-16 as China subsequently won the set 25-21.

But Serbia battled back to take charge late in the second set thanks to Boskovic, who led the visitors to 25-23 in the second set. The Eastern Europeans stepped up their game on both offense and defense in the third. Liu sent her spike wide and the Europeans went on to take it 25-21 for a 2-1 lead in the match.

In the fourth set, Sinisa Mihajlovic's spike gave the Serbs a blazing 5-0 lead and an in-form Boskovic showed her prowess to extend the lead to 17-6. Serbia eventually won the set 25-17 on Jelena Blagojevic's drop, wrapping up the contest three sets to one. China ended Pool 7 in Macao with one win and two losses.

In last year's Grand Prix, Serbia also beat China 3-1 in pool play, and repeated the same score in the bronze medal match.

Lang Ping said after the match, “We made sure everyone on the team played against strong Serbia since we have a lot of young players. As we said before the competition, we wanted to give our new players an opportunity to get some experience in matches. The young players did a good job this time.

“We have a long way to go for tacit cooperation on the court. We have tried our best in every game. This was also the best chance for our team to develop fast.”

The Volleyball Nations League is a new initiative from the FIVB, volleyball's world governing body. The annual women's international volleyball tournament is contested of 16 national teams, replacing the World Grand Prix.

(With input from Xinhua)