China's women's volleyball team will start a five-game series against men's teams in south China's Guangdong Province on Friday.

"We are going to sweep all the matches," said China's head coach Chen Zhonghe, who led his side to the country's first volleyball gold in 20 years during the 2004 Olympics and is hoping to repeat the feat in 2008.

The Chinese women's team, which has played the annual battle of the sexes in Guangdong since 2003, will take on a local team in Taishan on Friday and Saturday and then move to Kaiping and Jiangmen for two more games.

The last game of the series will be against the Guangzhou men's team next Wednesday.

Veteran setter Feng Kun is set to miss the series as she already returned to Beijing to have her injured knee treated.

After winning a six-game series against Cuba in southeast China early this month, the Chinese team seems to have recovered its form just in time to defend its Olympic title this summer.

"We are getting better and stronger," said Chen, adding China's Olympic lineup will be much like the one against the Cuban side.

In one of the most dramatic games in the Athens Games, China came from two sets down to beat Russia for the crown. Since then, China suffered injuries to key players Feng Kun and Zhao Ruirui and a loss of form.

China finished fifth at the 2006 world championships and missed out on the Asian title last year for the first time in more than two decades.

The volleyball gold medal in the 2008 Olympics is the "second most wanted by Chinese", according to a recent Xinhua poll. The 110 hurdles gold, won by Chinese Liu Xiang in 2004, tops the online poll.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2008)