Olympic champion China suffered its second loss in two days at the 2008 World Grand Prix Finals women's volleyball tournament, going down to Cuba 3-1 at the Yokohama Arena on Thursday.
The Chinese women were destroyed by the Cuban blockers, who finished with 20 blocking points in the match that lasted one hour and 25 minutes.
"Their blockers did a really good job today," admitted China head coach Chen Zhonghe. "While we could not find our rhythm in attack and had big trouble with the combination."
Cuba head coach Antonio Perdomo attributed his team's second straight win at the six-team round robin to high quality serves. "Today we played very well, especially on serve. It was really good, and that was the most important point of today's game."
Coming off a grueling five-set loss to Italy, China started slowly in the first match of the day, struggling with their reception early in the first set.
Daimi Ramirez teamed up with Rachel Sanchez to stuff Wang Yimei and then drove a spike off the block out of bounds to push Cuba up at 9-6.
The Chinese answered with two consecutive points, but some more impressive blocking efforts of Ramirez and Sanchez helped Cuba enlarge its lead to 17-11 with on back of an 8-3 run.
China showed some fighting spirit towards the end of the first set, staving off three set points to pull within 24-21, but Cuba converted on the fourth through a kill of Ramirez.
In the second set, China improved their reception to get their offense going. Two smart dinks from the 1.90-meter Wang Yimei gave China the edge at 7-6, but Cuba reeled off three points in a row to overtake the lead at 9-7.
Staying within 14-12, the Chinese women surged ahead with an 8-1 burst thanks to consecutive smashes of Wang and never looked back.
The third set was hotly contested with the two teams trading point by point late in the set for a 24-all tie.
Zoila Barros slammed a ball home to give Cuba the edge before Yumilka Ruiz beat Feng Kun for the set winner following an effective block against middle hitter Ma Yunwen.
The Chinese collapsed in the fourth set, where Cuba jumped to a 12-7 lead and cruised to the victory at 25-16.
Rosir Calderon collected 16 points to lead five Cuban attackers in double scoring digits.
The Chinese women, who managed only four points from blocking, were led by Wang Yimei with 17 points.
(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)