Russia, Brazil unbeaten in women's volleyball worlds

Russia remained unbeaten after defeated China 3-1 in the 2006 women's volleyball world championships here on Saturday, while Brazil overcame the United States to get its fourth straight win in Kobe in another group match.

It took Russia one hour and a half to grasp the important win in the Group B by 20-25, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-12.

China took an early lead 8-2 in the opening set and maintained the five points lead until the set before Xu Yunli had a fast-breaking attack in the middle to win the opening set 25-20.

But the thing changed totally in the second set. On back of powerful services of Elena Godina and Ekaterina Gamova, Russia staged a 5-1 run for a 20-18 lead and held on to pull one set back at 25-23.

Russia remained the winning momentum in the following two sets, powering to the victory with Gamova concluding the match with a serve.

Also on Saturday, tournament favorite Brazil eased past the United States in straight sets to extend its unbeaten run to four.

The Brazilians took the game 25-23, 25-21, 25-13 and hand the United States its first defeat in the tournament.

In Nagoya, Serbia and Montenegro continued its unbeaten run with a 25-9, 25-13, 25-15 win over Egypt, while Costa Rica rallied from two sets down to beat Kenya 19-25, 23-25, 25-16, 32-30, 15-9 and secure its first victory in Group D.

Defending championship Italy kept good form to beat Cuba 3-1 in a Group D match in Nagoya.

The Italians, who had their third straight win after a surprising loss to Serbia Montenegro in the opening match, fish-hooked their opponents 25-27 25-19 25-21 and 25-19 in under two hours.

Japan continued their recent dominance of South Korea with a 3-1 success in Tokyo. Japan, who had lost only one of their 12 clashes since 2003 before, came home 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22 in front of a 10,000 capacity crowd.

Japan now ranked second in Group A, one point behind Chinese Taipei, who trounced Poland 25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23.

The women's tournament involves 24 teams divided into four groups. The top four teams in each group advance to the second round.

Source: Xinhua