Puerto Rico sent Asian silver medallists China home with a four-set victory in the men's world volleyball championships yesterday in Saitama, Japan.

The Puerto Ricans, determined to beat China for a better points ratio, rallied to a 25-17, 25-13, 21-25, 26-24 win for an identical 2-3 win-loss record with China in the six-team Pool A round robin in Saitama.

Patient attacking and a more solid defense led by captain Luis Rodriguez carried the Puerto Rico team to an easy win.

The 37-year-old Rodriguez scored 12 points while Hector Soto led the team with 16 points.

Sui Shengsheng, captain of China, led the team with 14 points and Yu Dawei added 10.

Argentina defeated Egypt 25-18, 29-31, 25-20, 25-20 for the same 2-3 record.

It gave Argentina and Puerto Rico the third and fourth places to qualify for the second stage with a better points ratio of 490/493 (1.004) and 487/485 (0.993) against China's 473/499 (0.947).

"It was a very important game and I'm very satisfied with the result. My players were nervous, maybe the Chinese too. Both teams made big mistakes. I'm very pleased that we can go into the second round," said Puerto Rican coach Carlos D. Cardona.

China's coach Zhou Jianan said: "My players couldn't play our normal game in the first two sets. We couldn't keep our concentration and couldn't block Puerto Rico's attacks. This is the reason of our defeat."

China's player Shen Qiong said the lack of important match-play experience added to the nerves.

"We knew today's match was very important, but we were nervous at the start and could not play our game. It is the first world championships for some of the players and they did not have enough experience. We must improve that looking forward to the Beijing Olympics," Shen said.

(China Daily November 23, 2006)