China made an easy through to the semifinals of the women's volleyball tournament in the Asian Games.

Without sending their regular starters on court, the former World Cup and Olympic title holder took the match 25-13, 25-6, 26-6 in less than an hour.

Mongolia, opening the second set in a sluggish way, was deprived of all the three points while trailing 13-3, after the referees found them in wrong positions for three straight serving rounds.

What followed just proved the defending champions too strong to their opponents. Mongolia took two out of their six points in the third set through their own efforts and the others from unforced errors by Chinese with Chu Jinling and Xu Yunli each serving directly into the net.

The youngster-packed Mongolia even made a silly mistake as they sent a player wearing a shirt numbered 21, which had to be covered with a piece of white cloth, while 18 is the biggest number permitted to show on the volleyball floor.

Xu Yunli, 19, had 13 points to lead China to its fourth straight victory in the 14-day tournament, and libero Zhang Ping and attacker Wang Yimei added 11 and 7 points respectively.

China have extended their winning streak in Doha without losing a set, and set up a semi-final clash on Sunday against the winners between Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2006)