Bari, Italy, September 25, 2014 – China put on a strong performance here Thursday evening to beat Belgium 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-19) for their third straight win at the 2014 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship and secure a berth in the second phase.Key Points:· Belgium and China have never met before at the World Championship.· Zeng Chunlei was the top scorer of the match (18 points).· They played each other earlier this year at the 2014 World Grand Prix. China beat Belgium 3-1 in the final round. · Helene Rosseaux is 23 years old. Today is her birthday. She played in Modena, an Italian club.· China won all three matches of Pool D in straight sets.
Belgium took an early advantage in the first set thanks to an ace of Frauke Dirickx and Charlotte Leys's attack (8-4). The first attacking point of Laura Heyrman enlarged the lead to 10-5. A block of Zeng Chunlei cut the deficit to 11-9 for China before it was tied at 12-12. A Belgian error gave China a 14-12 lead and the Chinese women improved to 16-13 at the second TTO. Captain Hui Ruoqi closed the set (25-21).
Lang Ping's team opened the second set in strong fashion (5-2), but Leys' serves were unstoppable for the Asian defence and Belgium overtook the lead at the first TTO (8-7). After China pulled it back at 15-15, Belgium improved their quick attacks through Van Hecke to lead 20-17. Zhu Ting and Zeng Chulei responded with some wonderful attacks to make it 22-22 and a block of Xu Yunli and an attack by Zeng put them 2-0 up (26-24).
Belgium started well in the third set, jumping to a 6-2 lead thanks to five points from Van Hecke. As well as the last two sets, China closed the gap (7-7) and overcame Vande Broek's team. But a lot of Belgian errors in offense helped the Asian team win the match (25-19).