Bangkok, Thailand, July 6, 2016 - The Netherlands started their participation in the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 Group 1 finals in Thailand with a 0-3 loss to USA and their tough schedule continues with another powerful opponent - China - on Thursday.
Head-to-Head
• This will be the 17th encounter between China and Netherlands at the World Grand Prix. Netherlands have won only three of these meetings, most recently in 2009 (3-2).
• Netherlands' 13 defeats against China are most for them against a specific opponent at the World Grand Prix.
• All three Dutch victories came in five sets, while China won all matches in either straight sets (5) or in four sets (8).
• Netherlands did win their most recent meeting at any other world level tournament, a 3-2 victory at the 2006 World Championship.
China
• China lost their last match against United States in straight sets, ending their winning streak of eight World Grand Prix matches.
• They have not lost consecutive World Grand Prix matches since Japan and Brazil both proved too strong in straight sets in 2014.
• China's last four World Grand Prix matches all ended in straight sets (three victories, one defeat).
• Zhu Ting and Zhang Changning are joint top scorer of China at the 2016 World Grand Prix with 91 points each.
Netherlands
• Netherlands failed to beat United States on Wednesday (3-0) and have now lost three of their last four World Grand Prix matches.
• Netherlands have not lost successive World Grand Prix matches in straight sets since 2013 (Serbia, United States).
• Lonneke Slöetjes has scored a team-high 184 points at this year's World Grand Prix. She has scored more points than the second (Anne Buijs, 82) and third (Celeste Plak, 80) most prolific top scorer of Netherlands combined (162).
• Only Russia's Nataliya Goncharova (185) has scored more points than Slöetjes in Group 1 of the World Grand Prix.