Germany, who won the title by beating Japan in the finals in Palma two years ago, bowed to the Slovakians 18-25, 17-25, 25-17, and 24-26.

"My players performed well today, and I hope to win some more matches in the games," said Slovakia head coach Jan Kokar.

Kokar added that his teams was composed of two professionals based in Spain and students from four universities.

"The Slovakians played better passing and blocking in the match, our defense was bad and we made a lot of mistakes," German coach Klaus Jurgen Weber said.

Klaus confirmed that the champion team two years ago was the German national team and his team this time was the second German team.

The Germans suffered a setback when they gave up the first two sets easily at 25-18 and 25-17, mainly on their own errors and excellent blocking of their witty opponents.

But Germany rallied back in the third set with powerful spiking and sound blocking before winning 25-17.

It was a keenly contested in the fourth set which saw neither can take more than a three-point lead. After leveling from 13-13 to 24-24, the Slovakians spiked two more points to end the set and match at 26-24.

In another match of the group, Switzerland faced little challenge from Hong Kong, China, winning at 25-19, 25-14 and 25-16.

(Xinhua News Agency 08/23/2001)