China, Brazil Unbeaten in Harbin Women's Volleyball Grand PrixChina and Brazil remain unbeaten in the women's volleyball Grand Prix Harbin tournament on Saturday.The Chinese women's volleyball team scored its second straight victory here in the world Grand Prix, beating Germany 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-17) on Saturday. The Brazilian team, which finished a disappointed third place at Hong Kong last week, also clinched their second win on Saturday, beating Japan 3-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-18, 28-26). The newly reshuffled Chinese team, which had never played against Germany before, paid enough attention to the match. The German team began the match strongly and forced the score at 8-8. But after that, the Chinese team took control of the match thanks to their fast attacking and tight blocking to win the first set 25-22. The second set turned to be a severe test for the young Chinese team. They made a series of errors and let the Germans take the lead at 24-22. At the crucial point, Yang Hong scored twice with her serve while Liu Yanan and Wu Yongmei put up two successful blocks to wrap the set for China 26-24. The third set was much easier for the Chinese team as they outpointed their German counterparts 25-17 for their second win in the Harbin tournament. On Friday, China took revenge on Japan with a 3-1 victory while Germany lost to Brazil in a five-set thriller. In the second match on Saturday, Brazil, which lost to Japan 3- 0 in Hong Kong, conceded the first set 18-25 but came back strongly in the following three sets to win the match 3-1. It was the second straight defeat for the Japanese team, which stunned the volleyball world with three 3-0s in Hong Kong, against China, Brazil and Cuba respectively. China will take on Brazil, which they beat 3-2 in Hong Kong last week, while Japan play against Germany on Sunday. |
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