China beats Japan 3-0 in their men's volleyball opener

Imaginechina

China beat Japan in straight sets on Saturday in their men's volleyball opener of the Chengdu Universiade.

Wang Dongchen notched a team-high 14 points, Zhang Guanhua added 12 while Peng Shikun and Deng Xinpeng had 11 apiece as the Chinese men claimed the 35-33, 25-19 and 25-23 victory in pool C.

"The first set was really close and we just held on for the victory," said Deng. "We don't want to make our home fans disappointed."

China reaped 14 points from blocking, compared to one for Japan.

"Our players were a little bit nervous in the beginning, but we were able to play better when we improved our blocking from the start of the second set," said China coach Shen Andong.

Also in pool C, Ukraine defeated Azerbaijan 3-0.

In pool D, defending champion Italy recorded a 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei, while Brazil lost to Germany 3-0.

In Saturday's other matches, Argentina eased past India 3-0, Poland overpowered Portugal 3-0, the Czech Republic outlasted Iran 3-2 and South Korea beat Hong Kong, China 3-0.

Sixteen men's teams were bracketed into four pools in the round-robin preliminaries with the top two finishers from each pool to make the quarterfinals.