China national women's volleyball team cuts roster for VNL

BEIJING - China's national women's volleyball team unveiled its official 16-player roster for the upcoming Volleyball Nations League (VNL) here on Wednesday.

A notable change sees several players who previously featured in Team China's profile on the VNL website have been eliminated from the official roster.

Such a cutdown means that Wu Mengjie and Wang Yifan will miss their chances to make their VNL debuts.

"They are assigned to compete in other games," said a team source.

Another name also disappearing from the new roster is libero Wang Mengjie, who was among China's conventional starters during Tokyo 2020.

Veteran middle blocker Yuan Xinyue has been appointed captain to lead this reassembled national team. Setter Ding Xia and opposite spiker Gong Xiangyu are two other players with two-time Olympic experiences.

Spiker Li Yingying and middle blocker Wang Yuanyuan, who both proved their capabilities in the Tokyo Olympics, are also the cornerstones of this team.

Young talents who performed well in China's domestic league, such as spiker Wang Yizhu, setter Diao Lingyu and libero Ni Feifan, add vitality to the squad.

Other names are spikers Jin Ye and Wang Yunlu, middle blockers Yang Hanyu, Gao Yi and Zheng Yixin, opposite spiker Miu Yiwen, setter Cai Yaqian and libero Wang Weiyi.

"On the one hand, we need to provide inexperienced young players chances to grow, but on the other hand, we have to get a good result [at the VNL]. I need to balance it," said head coach Cai Bin in a previous interview.

The head coach also confirmed his goal of bringing this team to the VNL finals.

China's women's volleyball team will soon fly to Ankara, Turkey, where they will first play the Netherlands on June 1.