SAPPORO, Japan, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Having played two games each, seven of the 24 teams participating in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship had two straight wins as of Sunday.
The seven teams are the Netherlands from Group A, Italy and China from Group B, the United States and Russia from Group C, and Serbia and Brazil from Group D.
Star spiker Zhu Ting inspired China to a 3-0 victory over Turkey for their second win at the tournament, following a 3-0 win over Cuba in the previous day.
China and Turkey previously had eight encounters at world's major competitions, with China winning five of them. Sunday's game was also the two sides' second meeting at the World Championship after Turkey's 3-1 win in 2010.
"It was a tough game. Turkey has made a lot of progress (since our last encounter), and that's something that we could learn from," said China coach Lang Ping after the game.
"We still have many games ahead of us, and it's hoped that we can learn from these games and improve ourselves," Lang said.
China won the first set 25-18 with ease, but met much more resistance in the second set. After Turkey built a 6-2 lead, China, with more active attacks and blocking, turned the tide 18-10, and though Turkey managed to pull back a few points, China won the set 25-23 with a strong spike by Zhu Ting.
The third set was a see-saw one, with the two sides leveling the scores from 2-2 to 8-8. In the end, a few mistakes on Turkey's part helped China seal the victory 25-23.
China's Star spiker Zhu Ting and Turkey's young opposite spiker Ebrar Karakurt got 16 points each to lead the game, followed by China's spiker Zhang Changning who scored 12 points.
In two other Group B matches on Sunday, Italy outclassed Canada 3-0, with star blocker Paolo Egonu top-scoring with 18 points, and Bulgaria beat Cuba 3-0.
In the Group A games played in Yokohama, the Netherlands edged host Japan 3-2 in an intense game, while Germany cruised to a 3-0 win over Cameroon, and Mexico trounced Argentina 3-0.
In the Group C matches in Kobe, reigning champions the United States defeated in straight sets Trinidad and Tobago which played in the Women's World Championship for the first time, Azerbaijan opened their win account after beating South Korea 3-1, and Russia came back after losing two sets and edged Thailand 3-2.
In the Group D matches held in Hamamatsu, Brazil held off the Dominican Republic 3-0, Serbia beat Kenya 3-0 and Puerto Rico defeated Kazakhstan in straight sets.
The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship kicked off on Saturday. 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.
