BEJING--With no surprise, the reigning champion Chinese women's volleyball team scored a straight win over Olympic debutant Venezuela in the overwhelming cheers of some 14,000 home fans.
Genesia Franchesco Machado (Background) of Venezuela vies for the ball with China's Li Juan (L) and Zhao Ruirui during a 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Preliminary Pool A match in the Womens Olympic Volleyball on August 9, 2008 at the Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium. China won the game 3-0. [Agencies]
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The south Americans showed high spirit in front of their taller rivals to score the first point with a quick spike, but the Chinese controlled the rhythm to take the lead 4-3 with the spikes and blocks of star hitter Zhao Ruirui.
The host left the guest no time to adapt their renowned fast-attack style of play and enlarged their advantage from 12-7 to 20-12 with sound blocks and tricky drops of middle blocker Ma Yunwen and captain Feng Kun.
Venezuelan wing spiker Maria Jose Perez pulled back one point with high spike, but her another out-side offense helped the Chinese win the opener 25-13.
The determined Chinese exhibited ever higher quality of volleyball plus the powerful service of wing spiker Wang Yimei, while the Venezuelan still could not find the way to catch up with the crafty quick attack. China took the second set with another 25-13.
China sent its substitute squad on the court at the third set and took an early lead 4-1, when Venezuela staged a stunning 5-2 run to catch them up 6-6. The two sides traded leads to tie it at 9-all before China overtake the lead 12-9. The Chinese never looked back and it won the set and the match with a cross-court spike of Wang Yimei and a serve error of Venezuela.
Zhao Ruirui, China's best scorer with 12 points, said she was satisfied with her performance.
The 1.96-meter middle blocker sat on the bench at the Athens after she had her knee injured at the first match of the Games. Her return is believed to add tons of hope for China to repeat its glory four years ago.
"Today, that's the very first Olympic match for me in a real sense and I'm very excited to perform at the home court. I'm fighting for my goal, a well-deserved gold medal, match by match with my teammates," said Zhao.
After this match, China will play on Monday European rising force Poland, who, however, lost their first match against Cuba early in the afternoon, while Venezuela will meet Japan.
Twelve women's teams are divided into two groups in the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament in Beijing that run through August 9-17. Italy is grouped with Algeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia and Serbia in Pool B while defending champion China is with Cuba, Japan, Poland, USA and Venezuela in Pool A.
The knockout stage runs from August 19 to 23.
