China's women advanced to the semifinals of the volleyball competition after emphatically beating Russia at the Capital Gymnasium Tuesday.
In front of 15,000 noisy home spectators, they routed the Athens silver medalists in a game lasting one and a half hours.
Zhao Ruirui of China smashes the ball past Russia's Natalia Alimova during the match August 19 2008. [China Daily] |
It was a match the home side had to win, since the possibility of winning at volleyball has captured the imagination of the Chinese people.
Chinese captain Feng Kun said after the game that the team, which lost opening round games against Cuba and the United States, had coped well with the pressure of expectations.
"We were very excited with the victory since it came after losing two matches in our group, " she said.
In the game itself, Russia led 4-0 in the first set but after a timeout by China, the score became level at 22-22 before the hosts finally took the opener 25-22.
The anxious Russians made more errors in the second and third sets. They squandered a set point to lose the second set 25-27 and then lost the decisive third set 19-25.
Russia had the advantage of height during the game with Ekaterina Gamova 2.02m tall, Yulia Merkulova also 2.02m and Elena Godina at 1.96m and very effective over the net.
But China successfully controlled the match with their fast attacks and solid blocking. The Chinese starting line-up proved to be a well-balance squad with several veterans with Olympic experience as well as a number of young players, such as swing spikers Wang Yimei and Li Juan.
China's coach Chen Zhonghe said the team played with confidence.
"Today we shrugged off pressure and played in a relaxed frame of mind. We were thoroughly prepared for the game and fought for every point," he said.
He added: "Russia just made the same mistakes as we did in the group matches. They were too anxious to win and made many errors to lose their lead in the first and second sets.
"We went through a very difficult period after the two losses to Cuba and the US. Today we did quite well."
Russian head coach Caprara Giovanni said he was disappointed with the loss. "We had some problems in our attack and we made many errors. Our players were too anxious to win. We lost some key points in the first and second sets," he said.
"Russia was absent from major tournaments before the Olympics so we are not in our top form."
Captain Marina Sheshenina agreed that their mistakes led to their failure.
"I have to apologize to our fans for our loss today. We were too eager to win and lost our control of the game," she said.
In other matches Tuesday, Cuba beat Serbia 3-0, Brazil defeated Japan 3-0. US outplayed Italy 3-2.