Defending champion China struggled past Germany 3-2 in Reggio Calabria Saturday for a fifth finish at the women's volleyball 2004 World Grand Prix Finals.

Germany, who lost to China 3-0 in the Chinese Taipei leg preliminaries three weeks ago, erased a 10-7 deficit in the tiebreaker to tie it at 14-all. A kill by Yang Hao and a spiking mistake from Olessya Kulakova gave the Chinese the victory in two hours and kept them from recording the worst record at the World Grand Prix.

With the fifth finish, China matched their lowest ranking in 1997 at the annual tournament which was founded in 1993.

"We did not play well in the Grand Prix Finals," said Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe. "Our ace spikers struggled and the setter was also not in shape."

"We will try to learn from the matches and better prepare for the Athens Olympics," he added.

The World Cup winners, who dropped to the United States 3-0 on Thursday to lose the chance of qualifying for top four, got to a flying start in the 5th-6th decider as they raced to an 11-1 lead and went on to take the opener 25-15.

Germany fought back hardly in the second set as the Chinese women, who have gathered together for training since January, seemed to be held back by fatigue. Zhou Suhong served into the net to award Germany with a 24-23 advantage before the Germans used a counter attack to pull one set back at 25-23.

The Europeans continued their winning momentum in the third set as they withstood six set points for a 31-30 lead. Atika Bouagaa drove a ball out of bounds to overtake the lead for Germany.

China eased to a 25-14 win in the fourth set, forcing the tiebreaker.

Zhou Suhong led China with 23 points with Yang Hao and Zhang Ping adding 19 and 14 respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2004)