Lang Ping, the new head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, has played down their prospect at the four-nation invitational tournament which kicks off in Zhejiang on Friday.

China will face Cuba, Thailand and Puerto Rico at the round-robin event between May 17-19, just a week after the Chinese team held their first training session under Lang Ping's charge.

"With such limited time to prepare for this tournament, the fans and media should not have high expectations for the Chinese team," Lang told a press conference Thursday afternoon. "If my players can play their normal game, I would be quite satisfied, regardless of the results of each match."

The Chinese women's squad has undergone a major reshuffle, with several key players of the London Olympic team including setter Wei Qiuyue, middle blockers Ma Yunwen and Xue Ming left out. Meanwhile, four youngsters, Liu Xiaotong, Li Jing, Zhu Ting and Yao Di, were called up for the first time.

"I plan to give as many players as possible a chance to play at the Ningbo tournament," said the 53-year-old Lang, who guided China to the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and to the second place at the 1998 World Championships in Japan before she took the helm of the US women's team in 2004 and led them to silver in Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"And I will continue to select players in one year from now on. The starting line-up is far from being decided," she added.

After bagging the bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese women's volleyball team failed to reach the semifinals in 2012 Games. Head coach Yu Juemin resigned right after the Olympics and Lang was appointed to coach the Chinese national team last month.

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