Russia Win Fourth Straight as Grand Prix Preliminaries Conclude

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 27, 2003

Russia Win Fourth Straight as Grand Prix Preliminaries Conclude

Defending champions Russia tamed China 3-1 Saturday in Gioia Del Colle for their fourth straight victory at the 2003 women's volleyball World Grand Prix.

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Defending champions Russia tamed China 3-1 Saturday in Gioia Del Colle for their fourth straight victory at the 2003 women's volleyball World Grand Prix.

Saturday's action also drew an end to the preliminaries, which saw South Korea, Russia, China, the United States, the Netherlandsand Italy advance to the final round.

Russian coach Nikolai Karpol eyed the title after roaring his girls on throughout the match for the 25-23, 21-25, 25-19 and 28-26 victory.

"The final round will be difficult, but I think we can win thechampionship," Karpol said at the press conference.

"We played a good game today and our team is in good form," he added.

Russia ran off five straight points from an 11-11 tie for a 16-11 advantage in the opening set. China pulled within 23-22 with a4-0 run before star spiker Evguenia Artamonova smashed two straight balls to win the set for Russia.

China improved their blocking in the second set and the two sides traded leads before the Asians went ahead 23-21. Artamonova tried to save Russia but Yang Hao, Zhao Ruirui and Feng Kun teamed up to stop ice her storming attack twice in a row for the last two points.

Surrendering the third set more tamely, China rallied in the fourth for a 25-24 lead. However, the Chinese girls, runners-up to Russia in last year's Grand Prix, dropped four of the last five points.

"Our defense and blocking were OK, but we could not hold on at the crucial point," China head coach Chen Zhonghe said.

"We also made too many mistakes in serving, which showed that we still need to improve our basic skills," he added.

Artamonova and towering spiker Ekaterina Gamova each scored 20 points to lead Russia and Elizaveta Tichchenko added 16.

Russia and South Korea, 3-0 winners over Brazil on Saturday, both finished the preliminaries with four wins against one loss while South Korea ranked top of pool B with better sets win-loss ratio.

China shared a 3-2 record with Brazil but eliminated the latter from the final round with better sets ratio.

The United States, the Netherlands and Italy clinched the top three places in pool A to advance with the six-team final round competition to start on Monday.

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