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Dalian, Northeast China, May 31, 2005 – The world number one women’s team China ruled out a late comeback from the Dominican Republic, ranked 12th in the world, to claim their second straight victory in the preliminary round of the PetroChina KunLun Cup China International Women's Volleyball Tournament here on Tuesday.

A late rally by the Dominicans fizzled, as the hosts quickly found their rhythm again after losing the chance of winning in straight sets, closing the match 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 25-18) for their seventh straight win in two weeks.

A hard-hitting attack led by Zhang Ping and Chu Jinling sparked the Chinese to a comfortable start and an easy win in the first set, 25-18. Then the hosts stretched the lead with eight unforced errors from the Dominicans gifting China, who beat Japan 3-1 on the opening day, the second set. However, the world cup champions committed seven errors of their own in the third set to see the Dominican Republic run off six points in a row to take the lead at 16-13 after being 10-12 down. Despite both sides suffering from serving problems, the fourth set eventually went China’s way, giving them the match.
Pic: China's Chu Jinlin beats the defence of the Dominican Republic
China, who won the Shenzhou Cup China International Women's Volleyball Tournament on Saturday, recruited several young players after winning the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and Ma Yunwen, Wang Yimei ,Xue Ming, Wang Ting and Zhao Yun made their international debut in last week's Shenzhou Cup at Beilun, Southeast China.

In Tuesday's game, the 19-year-old Ma Yunwen was again put in the position that once belonged to China's tallest player Zhao Ruirui who is not in the national team due to a leg injury but coach Chen Zhonghe was disappointed that none of the Chinese players, especially the newcomers, had performed well.

"Our starting line up had an overwhelming attacking advantage but we squandered it," Chen said "There have been too many ups and downs and the newcomers did not show a good capacity for reading the game."

"We fought back," said Dominican head coach Erancisco Cruz Jimenez. "I'm satisfied with our performance today, especially that in the third and fourth sets. Being down 2-0 is not easy. I just think we ran out of gas there at the end. China is a much stronger team than us and they showed us what Volleyball is."

In the other match of Group A, Japan defeated Poland in straight sets (25-21, 25-21, 28-26). Poland had the advantage of height and attacking power, but they made too many mistakes while some tight Japanese also contributing to the win.

In Group B, the Netherlands clinched their first victory with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-16) win over Bulgaria. In last week’s competition in Beilun, the Dutch did not win a single match, finishing last out of the seven teams.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi finals.