Olympic bronze medallist China beat Turkey in straight sets Wednesday for its opening win at the 2009 China International Women's Volleyball Tournament.
Ma Yunwen scored 13 points to lead the Chinese to the 25-16, 26- 24 and 25-18 victory in 74 minutes.
Going down tamely in the first set, the Turkish women put up real resistance in the second when they staged a 6-0 run to overtake the lead at 12-9.
"We did not play very well in the second set," said China head coach Cai Bin. "Turkey's No.15 player (Meryem Boz) served the ball so well that we struggled with our reception. As a result, we struggled with our quick attack."
The Chinese women steadily pulled it back at 22-all before Turkey ran off two points for the set point.
However, that's the farthest the Europeans could go. After Boz served a ball long, she was blocked by Ma Yunwen to allow China tie it at 24-all. Then Li Juan drove a ball home to give China the edge and Ma came up big again to clinch the set winner.
"The Chinese team played more consistently than we did," said Turkey head coach Alessandro Chiappini. "We had a chance to win the second set, but we didn't play well enough to take it. Our players are too young and we have a lot to improve."
In the third set, China jumped to an 11-5 lead and never looked back.
Earlier on Wednesday, Dominican Republic upset Cuba in five sets for a winning start at the four team round robin tournament.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2009)
