China ease into women's volleyball worlds

China came out unbeaten to reach the second round of the 2006 women's volleyball world championship as the Olympic titlist easted past Mexico 3-0 in Sarporo, Japan on Friday.

It took China only 63 minutes to finish the game with 25-20, 25-10 and 25-12 to gain their third straight win in the tournament.

Wang Yimei had 16 points to lead China while veterans Yang Hao and Zhou Suhong added 10 and 9 points respectively.

"There is no weak teams in the world championship," said Chen Zhonghe, head coach of China. "So I am happy that our players had a good performance today and I hope they will continue to play well in the next game."

With the win, China climbed to top of Group B and will face another powerhouse in the group Russia on Saturday, who also remained unbeaten after defeating Germany 3-1 early on Friday.

China easily took a 8-5 lead shortly into the match, and though Mexico managed to scrape a few points, the Chinese were never in serious trouble.

The Mexicans did not improve their attack or defense in the following set and China took the second set with 25-10 and used a 7-0 run in the third to seal the victory.

Despite the loss, Orlando Samuels, head coach of Mexico, praised his players for their performance during the game.

"We knew before this match that China is a very strong team and that they play to a very high level, therefore I do not have any special comments to make about this match. We will play Dominican Republic tomorrow and we hope we can get a victory in that game."

Source: Xinhua