CHICAGO, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese men's volleyball team lost 3-0 to 5th-ranked Italy at the 2025 Volleyball Men's Nations League (VNL) Chicago leg on Friday.

China, ranked 24th in the world, briefly led 2-0 in the opening set, but Italy responded with four straight points during Alessandro Michieletto's service rotation to take control. In the second set, Italy opened with a dominant 8-2 run. Although China managed to cut the deficit to 14-18, Michieletto's successive service points and Daniele Lavia's powerful spikes broke through China's defense. The third set saw China edge ahead 5-3 early, but Italy soon widened the gap thanks to Gianluca Galassi's blocking and Riccardo Sbertoli's counterattacks, sealing the match with set scores of 25-18, 25-15, and 25-19.

"It is acceptable to play against the Italian team with such a result," Chinese team opposite hitter Wen Zihua said. "Competing with high-level players allows us to learn a lot. We can improve significantly during the game."

Outside hitter Wang Bin said he felt he had performed to his potential. "I really need opportunities like this to play and gain experience. It's very important to me."

"There's a difference between result and how we play," China's Belgian head coach Vital Heynen said. "Italy is the world champion. They play with their best team. We choose to have a lot of players. We have a lot of small injuries to play with, a lot of young guys who never played against Italy. Then they were fighting good, but Italy is better. That's no discussion."

Heynen is satisfied with the way the Chinese players were fighting and playing. "Of course they make some mistakes, we can do better. But that's why we try this kind of matches."

"We were trying to fight, and the most important is that you play at your maximum, but you have to accept sometimes that other teams are better," Heynen said.

With two more injuries from the match and only eight players available, "we have different idea than that we tried to win. Here was for learning and I was satisfied with it," Heynen said.

The Chinese team has no competition scheduled on June 28 local time following three consecutive days of intense matches against the United States, Brazil, and Italy. When a reporter mentioned that the players could take a day off, Heynen replied earnestly, "we have a day to prepare. This is different."

China is scheduled to face Canada on Sunday. ■