Chinese spikers made history by making top eight at the men's volleyball tournament of the Beijing Games despite a 25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 20-25 and 16-14 loss to Italy on Monday.

The host advanced into the quarter-finals of the 12-team tournament after finishing fourth in preliminary pool A with two wins against three losses.

Chinese captain Shen Qiong was eager to share the emotional moment with former teammate Tang Miao, who has been suffering from paralysis after seriously injured his neck in a training session in June 2007.

"Although he is not playing with us on the court, we can not make this achievement without his dedication to the national team in the past few years," Shen Qiong told Xinhua after the marathon match that lasted nearly two hours.

"I know he has been watching us play on TV and cheering for us, we would like to give our best wishes to him and hopefully he can recover soon."

The 26-year-old Tang, the husband of Chinese women's international Zhou Suhong, had been a key player since joining the national team in 2001.

"I will fight for Tang Miao," Shen Qiong told reporters before the Beijing Games where the Chinese are making their first Olympic appearance since 1984.

"It's a breakthrough for the Chinese men's volleyball, it really meant a lot for us," said Fang Yingchao, who scored 20 points to lead China, an eighth and bottom finisher at the Los Angles Games.

"This time is quite different because we fought through the preliminaries for the quarter-finals," Fang said. "It will be a great confidence boost to us and hopefully we can have even better performance in the future."

China head coach Zhou Jian'an attributed the improvement of his side to the participation in the World League in the last few years.

"We have gained experience and confidence from playing against top teams in the world," said Zhou Jian'an, who took the helm of the Chinese team in December 2005. "It really helped us."

The host will play defending champion and world No. 1 Brazil, top finisher from pool B, in Wednesday's quarter-finals.