China, Italy, United States, Russia, book tickets to next round of women's volleyball worlds

SAPPORO, Japan -- Four more teams secured their spots in the second round of the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship after their third straight wins on Tuesday.

The four teams are Italy and China from Pool B and United States and Russia from Pool C. The Netherlands from Pool A and Serbia from Pool D became the first two teams to secure their spots in the next round a day earlier.

China booked a ticket to the second round after hammering Canada 3-0 for their third straight win here. The scores of the three sets were 25-21, 25-21 and 25-13, respectively.

China's star spiker Zhu Ting got 14 points to lead the game. China's blocker Yuan Xinyue and Canada's Kiera Van Ryk also scored in double figures.

The two teams previously had four encounters in world-level championships, with China winning in straight sets each time. But despite China's dominance on paper, the Canadians was resilient and brought a lot of troubles to the Chinese Olympic champions in the first two sets.

"Canada did well today. None of the teams that play theWorld Championship can be said to be strong or weak. It's just that some of the teams are more experienced," said China coach Lang Ping after the game.

"Every game is tense. What we need to do is to learn from each game and improve ourselves," she said.

China will play Bulgaria in their fourth Pool B match on Wednesday.

In two other Pool B matches on Tuesday, Italy hammered Cuba with ease in straight sets, with Paola Egonu scoring a match-high 15 points, while Turkey got back on the winning track with a 3-0 win over Bulgaria.

In the Pool C matches in Kobe, reigning champions the United States came back from the loss of the first set and edged South Korea 3-1. Thailand beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-1, and Russia trounced Azerbaijan in straight sets.

The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship kicked off on Sept. 29. During the tournament that runs through Oct. 20, 24 teams from five continents have been scheduled to compete in 103 matches.

The teams play in four groups, with six in each group, in the first round and the top four teams of each group will advance to the second round.