USA beat China 3-0 in repeat of World Championship final

Reigning world champions the United States beat China 3-0 here Monday evening in a repeat of the 2014 FIVB Women's World Championship final match.

Recovering from an upset full-set loss to Serbia the night before, the American women collected the 25-23, 25-17 and 25-23 victory and improved their win-loss record at the 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup to 2-1. The Chinese women, who had lost to the American team 3-1 to finish runners-up in last year's World Championship, had their two-game winning streak snapped.

"Yesterday was a frustrating match for us; Serbia played very well. We were happy to play against a great team with a great coach and great programme. It was the seventh time we played China this year and every battle was difficult for us," said USA coach Karch Kiraly. "We have 11 challenging matches in 16 days. So it's a great challenge here and it's very difficult to get through this tournament without a loss for any team."

Christa Harmotto Dietzen injured her knee before being replaced by Terori Dixon when it was tied at 17-all in the third set, but the United States stayed calm and went on to seal the victory in 90 minutes.

The United States overpowered the Chinese women as they made 55 kills, compared with 38 for China. Karsta Lowe led the United States with 16 points with Kimberly Hill and Foluke Akinradewo adding 14 and 11 respectively. Zhu Ting led the Chinese scoring with 17 and Zhang Changning added 14, but no other Chinese player scored more than four points.

China coach Jenny Lang Ping attributed the loss to the lack of experience of her young players.

"We had fluctuations in our play, especially in the first set. Our block and reception were poor and USA were quick and very fast, and the players couldn't show their best," she said. "In the third set, we had opportunities but didn't capitalize on them. Our players don't have enough experience, but this is a good opportunity for them to get experience and the players can learn more."

"We lost today and need to face up to that and make use of what we learn. It's the first time for a lot of the players to take part in a big tournament but they can learn and they have the potential to improve," she added.

Earlier on Monday, European powerhouse Serbia overpowered Peru 3-0 (25-10, 25-17, 25-10) for their second win in a row.

Following a hard-fought full set win over world champions the United States, the Serbian women continued their winning momentum as Stefana Veljkovic led the scoring with 14 points from nine kills, four blocks and one ace while their regular starter and top scorer Brankica Mihajlovic had a match off.

Jelena Nikolic contributed 12 points for Serbia and Ana Bjelica came from the bench to add nine. Katherine Regalado, Clarivett Yllescas, Katherinne Olemar each had six points for Peru.

Peru, who have now lost their nine World Cup matches against CEV opponents since a 3-0 win over Spain in the first round group stage in 1991, slipped to a 1-2 win-loss record after receiving their second loss in two days.

After three rounds of play in the 12-team single round robin tournament, Russia remained as the only unbeaten team with eight points from three wins while six teams including the USA and China had two wins against one loss. Top two finishers from this tournament will qualify for the Rio Olympic Games. Endi