Wei Qiuyue of China celebrates winning the match with her teammates.  [Photo/Agencies]

RIO DE JANEIRO - China's women volleyball team upset favourites Brazil in a five-set battle on Tuesday that dashed the host nation's hopes of winning a third consecutive Olympic gold medal.

The younger Chinese team outplayed their more experienced opponents 15-25 25-23 25-22 22-25 15-13 and went through to the semi-finals where they will face the Netherlands.

Brazil, with eight players who competed in the 2012 London Games and four of them veterans from Beijing in 2008, had not dropped a single set until their quarter-final shocker against China.

China won their second gold medal in 2004 in Athens and are now on a path to a third under head coach "Jenny" Lang Ping, a former Chinese volleyball player who coached the United States to a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Today we proved our ability as a team after making mistakes in a shaky start in the Games," she told reporters. "Now we do not fear anything.