China off to winning start at women's volleyball WGP finals

Xinhua, June 28, 2012

Hosts China beat Cuba in straight sets for a winning start in the women's volleyball World Grand Prix finals which kicked off in Ningbo Wednesday.

China beat Cuba in straight sets for a winning start in the women's volleyball World Grand Prix finals which kicked off in NIngbo Wednesday. [CFP]

It took China only 73 minutes to book the 25-22, 25-22 and 25-17 victory in the six-team tournament.

"We are good at receiving. Our players had very good performance today," said Yue Juemin, head coach of China.

It was hotly contested early with both teams playing efficient attacks. Wei Qiuyue's ace serve helped China lead the game at 9-6, but Yue Juemin was forced into calling a time-out just minutes later after Cuba soon leveled the game with a series aggressive serves from Rosanna Giel Ramos.

Tied at 20-all, China remained two-point advantage and Ma Yunwen's kill gave China the set point with a speedy kill, then Zhang Lei converted it.

China got its offense at the start of the second set and managed to lead at 5-2 to force Juan Carlos Gala Rodriguez, head coach of Cuba, to call a time-out. But China held the leading trend firmly and enlarged the gap to 16-9 into the second TTO.

With Zhang's powerful spike from the middle of the net, China led at 19-14 and never looked back.

China showed strong determination in the third set and they took the lead 5-1 with two out-side spikes by Hui Ruoqi. Then the women's in red uniforms expanded their advantage to 15-9.

Cuba pulled back to get close to 11-15, but they wasted their chances to level the game with more spike and receiving errors.

Yang Junjing sparked a 4-1 run for China as she scored the China's last two points and Allegne Yanelis Santos served short to allow China seal the set 25-17.

Santos led the game with 18 points, including 12 kills and three blockes, Mendoza Yoana Palacios scored 13 points, but the Cuba duo could not stopped China's speedy attacks. China's two middle blockers - Yang Junjing and Ma combined for 20 points and opposite hitter Zhang added 10.

"We had a bad game today, made a lot of mistakes over the net. Our middle-players didn't play well. On the contrary, the Chinese middle-players played very well today," said Juan Carlos Gala Rodriguez.