BEILUN, East China, May 17 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 China was snapped a winning streak here on Thursday, losing with a youngster-packed squad by straight sets to South Korea in their third and last match at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
The reigning Olympic champions granted as many as 21 points to their opponents just through errors they committed during the 25-15, 25-15, 25-13 defeat.
Chinese coach Lang Ping, however, told media after the stunning lose that she wouldn't take her words back on how she decides to give rookies opportunities, just because of one loss.
"This defeat brought me back to the 2013 Asian Championship where we missed Zhu Ting and let Wang Yimei to fill her shoes. Yes, we did lose a lot and badly at that time, but we also harvested an established team and a bunch of experiences that helped those players a lot," she said.
"I think the newcomers like Li Yingying are on their way to become much stronger. They are young and they are very talented. I also want the media to give them spaces. Don't judge when they make mistakes and don't just blame them too much, nor keep boasting, though.
"What they really need is just the opportunity to play, to experience and to learn," she added, pointing out that they did really bad on first pass during the 3-0 loss.
The South Koreans, however, put up a nearly perfect performance as two heavy hitters, Kim Yeon Koung and Lee Jaeyeong, combined for 32 points with captain Kim making 13 spikes, two blocks and an ace and Lee racking up 14 kills from 33 swings.
It has been the first win of the South Koreans over their Asian rivals since 2010, showing no sign of weariness despite needing five sets to beat the Dominican Republic 24 hours earlier.
China won their two previous matches against Dominican Republic and Belgium in straight sets, and had expected to round their first three matches in the inaugural VNL with three straight wins.
Yuan Xinyue, 21, was China's top scorer for the second match in a row, finishing on 12 points. Wing spiker Liu Xiatong was the next best with seven while teenage sensation Li Yingying had just five points, her lowest haul of the tournament.
Next week, China will travel to Macao to play against Poland, Serbia and Thailand in Pool 7 while South Korea return home to host Germany, Russia and Italy in Pool 6.
Earlier on Thursday, the Dominican Republic came out the sole team that have finished their first stop of the 2018 VNL without a win after losing 3-2 (25-16, 18-25, 25-18, 19-25, 15-7) to Belgium.
It has been Dominica's third lose in a row. They narrowly missed out against South Korea on Wednesday, falling to the Asians in full five sets, after losing their first match 3-0 to China.
Belgium had won their first VNL match 3-0 over South Korea before they lost in straight sets to China on Wednesday.
"I thought it was a difficult match. We had made some mistakes in some important moments. And it was not allowed to make mistakes in such important moments," Dominican coach Marcos Kwiek told a post-match press conference.
Belgian coach Gert Vande Broek echoed: "I agree. Mistakes are what cost a game and that will definitely lead to failure. I enjoy this game, however, as both our players were in fighting inspiration."
