Lausanne, Switzerland, May 26, 2018 - China host USA Sunday to wrap up Week 1 of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League in Ningbo, with the Americans looking for their third straight victory on this opening week of the competition (after beating Argentina and Bulgaria). USA have a convincing lead over China (who are 1-1 this season after losing to Bulgaria and beating Argentina) overall in the head-to-head series with 16-3.
Head-to-Head
• China and United Stated will meet for the 20th time in a world level major competition.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• United States have won 16 of the 19 previous major world level encounters with China, including a 3-0 win in their most recent encounter at the 2011 World Cup.
• China's only three wins were all five setters: at the 1966 World Championship, 1992 World League and 2009 World League.
• At the 2009 World League, China and United States met four times in pool A. United States won three of those meetings (3-0, 3-0, 3-1) and went on to win Pool A, but were knocked out in the final round.
• The only time China and United States met at the Olympic Games was in Beijing in 2008. United States won 3-0 in the group stage and went on to win the gold medal.
China
• China bounced back from their 3-2 defeat to Bulgaria in their opening match of this year's VNL by beating Argentina 3-0 on Saturday.
• Chuan Jiang scored almost a third of China's 75 points in their match against Argentina, amounting for 23 points. No other Chinese player scored more than nine.
• In their 3-2 loss to Bulgaria on Friday, Chuan Jiang was also the match's top scorer on 17 points (Bulgaria's Boyan Yordanov next, 16).
• China can win successive world level major competion matches by a 3-0 scoreline for the first time since the Intercontinental Rounds of the 2014 World League, when they beat Puerto Rico and Spain in straight sets.
United States
• USA followed up on their 3-2 victory over Argentina on Friday by beating Bulgaria 3-1 on Saturday.
• Not since the 2015 World Cup have United States won their opening three matches of a world level major competition (then first eight).
• Nineteen of USA's last 20 straight-setters at world level major competitions were victories. The sole exception in this run was their 3-0 defeat to Canada at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
• Four players reached double figures in scoring for USA in their win over Bulgaria on Saturday: Taylor Sander (18 points), Thomas Jaeschke (16), Maxwell Holt (12) and Benjamin Patch (10).