China women's volleyball team claim 2nd straight win
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-01 10:20

China, the top-ranked team coming into the PetroChina KunLun Cup China International Women's Volleyball Tournament, ruled out a late comeback from the Dominican Republic to claim their second straight win in the preliminary round in Dalian, Northeast China, on Tuesday. 

A late rally by the Dominican team fizzled against China, as the hosts quickly found their rhythm again after losing the chance of winning in straight sets, closing the match 25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 25-18.

Wang Yimei, a 17-year-old Liaoning native who has been regarded a promising key star for the national squad, lost her position in the starting lineup in Tuesday's game and was substituted for Yang Hao down the stretch of the match on 24-18 as she killed the match point with an ace.

China recruited several young players after winning the gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games and Ma Yunwen, Xue Ming, Wang Ting and Zhao Yun made their internatinoal debut at last week's Shenzhou Cup in Beilun, Southeast China.

After Monday's 3-1 opening win over Japan in Dalian, Chen Zhonghe, the head coach of China women's team, angered at his squad and blamed that none of Chinese players, especially the newcomers, had performed well in game.

In Tuesday's game, the 19-year-old Ma Yunwen was again put on the position that once belonged to China's tallest volleyball girl.

Zhao Ruirui, who will miss all the competitions in 2005 due to a calf fracture which ruled her out of the Athen Olympic Games, while Zhang Ping, a member of China's Olympic team in Athens, was placed for main attack.

"Zhang Ping has proved herself a key to the squad's attack through this match, and Ma Yunwen and Wang Yiwen showed clearly that they still have lots to improve before staying on among the starters," said Chen, who led China to their first world title in 17 years at Japan World Cup in 2003 and to win the Olympic gold last August.

A hard-hitting, high-jumping attack led by Zhang Ping and Chu Jinling sparked the Chinese to a comfortable start and an easy win in the first set, 25-18.

Then the hosts stretched the lead to 2-0 with eight unforced errors from the Dominicans during the second set. China, however, sent out totally seven errors in the third set where the Dominican team ran off six points in a row to overtake on 16-13 from 10-12 down.

The fourth set finally came out a decisive one when both sides suffered from serving problems and the less worse one China won the match.

"Our starting lineup had the overwhelming attacking force but made squander of it," said Chen.

"There have been too many ups and downs and the newcomers didnot show their capability of reading the game."

"We fought back," said Dominican head coach Erancisco Cruz Jimenez. "I'm satisfied with our performance today, especially that in the third and fourth sets. Being down 2-0 is not easy. I just think we ran out of gas there at the end."

"China are a much stronger team than us and they showed us what volleyball is," added Jimenez.

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