Tianjin bested Shandong 3-0 to book a place in the semifinals of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Super League in Shangrao City, east China's Jiangxi Province
The 25-12, 25-15, 25-23 victory was the 18th consecutive win for the defending champions, who had come from behind to defeat Shandong 3-1 in their opening match of the best-of-three quarterfinals on Thursday.
Chinese international spiker Li Yingying had a game-high 22 points for Tianjin, including 12 in the third set. Her teammate and the league's leading scorer Melissa Vargas added 17, including six from serves.
Fujian and Shanghai also secured their places in the semifinals. Fujian had another straight-sets win over Beijing 25-18, 25-11, 25-17, while Shanghai repeated their victory over Liaoning 26-24, 25-13, 25-19.
The final place in the last four will be decided on Saturday when Shenzhen take on Jiangsu.
Shenzhen leveled that series 1-1 on Friday after an impressive 25-27, 22-25, 25-21, 28-26, 15-12 win. Captain Xue Yizhi scored 17 points, contributing key blocks and serve points to spearhead Shenzhen's recovery from two sets down.
In the men's volleyball league, a young Zhejiang team upset defending champions Shanghai 18-25, 25-19, 25-18, 24-26 and 18-16, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three semifinal series.
Zhang Guanhua and Zhang Jingyin had 23 points and 22 points respectively for Zhejiang. Bartosz Bednorz led Shanghai with 23 points.
Beijing beat Shandong 25-20, 25-10, 22-25, 25-22 in the other semifinal.
The second match of the men's semifinals will be staged on Saturday.
