Bari, Italy, September 24, 2014 – China opened their FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship putting on a strong performance to beat Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-20) at PalaFlorio.
Tomorrow Yang Ping's women will play against Azerbaijan (at 10.30 am) Key points:
•Karina Ocasio was the top scorer in the match with 19 points; Zhu Ting led China with 15.
• 7-0 was the largest break in the match: Puerto Rico put it in the first set
• In last head-to-head China won 3-1(25-16, 25-27, 25-11, 25-15) on Grand Prix Preliminary Round 2012, in Luohe.
• China have won all five World Championship matches against Puerto Rico in straight sets, in total 8 times.
• China had elevens block points to Puerto Rico’s nine. Puerto Rico outserved China 11-7.
In the first set Puerto Rico took a little lead thanks to their opposite spiker Karina Ocasio (3-5). But China immediately closed the gap with four points in sequence (10-6). Caribbean spikers had big troubles to contain the Asiatic block: China went ahead six points at the second TTO (16-10). Puerto Rico did not give up and took an incredible break (7-0) thanks to Karina Ocasio and Lynda Morales, leaders of the match (18-19). Coach Lang Ping substituted Zeng Chunlei with Yang Fang Xu and China won the opening set (25-23).
Puerto Rico got off to a good start rushing to 3-6 lead in the second set. China tried to fight back (8-7) and improved to 11-9. After the second TTO, the Chinese team regained control and Wei Qiuyue's ace closed the set (25-18).
In the third set coach Mieles preferred setter Vilmarie Mojica and spiker Yarimar Rosa. Lang Ping, instead, the opposite Yang. The balance was stopped by Asiatic attacks (18-16): Yang FangXu put the last point (25-20). Only two attack errors made by the China spikers (2), instead reception of Puerto Rico was low (55%/29%).