China denied a late comeback by Dominican Republic in Sapporo, Japan on Thursday to win 3-0 in the 2006 women's volleyball world championship.

China crushed Dominican Republic 25-19, 25-17 and 25-23 in just 68 minutes to achieve their second straight win in the tournament.

The game proved that the team with less errors wins when China had eight errors while Dominican Republic had 25.

Beato Miguel, head coach of Dominican Republic, said his team could play better.

"We thought before the match that it would be very difficult for us but we also felt that we could play better," said Miguel. "China is very good at quick attacks and our blocking was not really our strong point in this match. "

China found an easy time in the opening set after they managed a 8-5 lead with Yang Hao firing from the left side and Zhou Suhong in the middle.

Yang led the Chinese team with 12 points while Zhou added 11.

Dominican Republic tried to fight back but only found China maintained the 4-point leading and took the set 25-19.

"We have prepared for this match very well. We had a satisfaction performance in the first and second sets, we played a very fast game and used many variations in attack," said Chen Zhonghe, head coach of China.

China encountered an early resistance in the second set but Wang Yimei's serving proved to strong for the opponent as China had a 11-0 run and re-controlled the game to take the set 25-17.

"Wang Yimei served very well and she had a good streak going and we won a lot of consecutive points on her serve. On the other hand, I was disappointed in our failure to make the most of some easy balls," said Chen.

Dominican Republic fought more hard in the deciding third set to keep their opponents within touching distance.

They managed a rally from 18-22 down but only to see China seal the victory when Yang's spike was pushed out.

Done Nuris Arias scored 12 points to lead the Dominican Republic team and Andino Cosiri Rodriguez had 10.

"We tried our best and we learned a lot. Hopefully, we can use what we learned for the next match," said Miguel.

Miguel's team will face Azerbaijan on Friday while China will clash with Mexico.

(Xinhua News Agency?November 2, 2006)