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YOKOHAMA, Japan, Sept. 19-- With five of its starting players scoring double-digits, China easily defeated host nation Japan 3-0 in a sold-out Yokohama arena here on Thursday at the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup to sit firmly on top as the round-robin tournament went halfway. China demonstrated clear dominance on the net, outperforming Japan in blocks 14-2 with Gong Xiangyu contributing six alone. Zhang Changning had a game-high 19 points in China's 25-17, 25-10, 25-17 victory, their fifth consecutive win at the competition. Zhu Ting and Yuan Xinyue added 14 and 13 respectively. Risa Shinnabe had a team-high eight points. "We had full preparation ahead of the match. Japan has very enthusiastic home fans and we tried to give our best to put up a show for them. Also, we had a clear knowledge that Japan has a resilient defense, so we were mentally prepared not to be hasty on the court," Chinese coach Lang Ping said after the match. Japan had an aggressive start leading by 7-4. Captain Zhu and Zhang took turns to challenge Japan's tenacious defense while Yan Ni contributed solid blocks to help China turn the table to 18-12 and forced Japan into a timeout and soon a second as Gong Xiangyu's spike and block nailed two more points for China to lead 20-12. Sarina Koga won three points in a row for the Asian Championship winner after the timeout, yet was unable to close the gap as China claimed the first set 25-17. The defending champions had a commanding 8-0 run to surge ahead 9-2 and headed into the second technical time out 16-7 with Gong, Yan, and Yuan putting up a "Great Wall" in front of the net to silence the Japanese attackers. The game later turned into a service show by Zhang, as her five aces spurred China's 7-0 run en route to comfortably taking a 25-10 win. | 
