Asian champions China beat the United States in straight sets 29-27, 25-23, 25-18 in the women's World Cup volleyball tournament in Kanazawa, Japan, on Wednesday.

The American team gave China hard times but at the end lost with a small margin.

China had some problems in the formation of coach Hu Jin, who took over the national squad after star coach Lang Ping quit early this year, since Libero Li Yan was injured in a motorbike accident and middleblocker Zhao Ruirui got injured during training.

The United States had a big chance to beat China this time but lack of experience was the major problem for the formation of coach Michael Haley.

"At the beginning, it was hard to get our rhythm," Hu said. " But later on, when we played more relaxed, everything was getting better."

Haley said: "Our team fought hard but made too many errors."

China's captain Sun Yue was voted the Most Impressive player of the match while her teammate Wu Yongmei was the best scorer with 17 points.