China women volleyballers beat Serbia to start medal hunt

LONDON, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China went off to a solid start to their medal quest by upsetting Serbia 3-1 in the Olympic women's volleyball tournament on Saturday, when Chinese top spiker Wang Yimei returned to court after being out for three months with an ankle injury.

The Chinese, champions in the 2004 Athens Games and bronze medal winners in Beijing, rallied to win the 100-minute tussle² 16-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-12.

Middle blocker Xu Yunli scored 17 points for China, the highest among her teammates, and Milena Rasic is Serbia's best scorer with 14 points.

Wang, 24, whose powerful spikes³ was a constant threat to Serbia, scored 11 points including two ace⁴ serves.

"It's our first game and Serbia is a strong rival. We have a hard start because the Serbia has made some changes on their starting squad⁵ and we failed to coped with changes, but we have made full preparations for a hard game, so we rallied back and win," said China's head coach Yu Juemin.

Disappointment can be easily read on the face of the Serbian head coach Zoran Terzic on the dramatic loss of the game.

"We started really well with a lot of courage and power, and I really don't know why later, especially in service and attack we played very bad," he said.

Terzix explained the weary performance of the team's top spiker Jovana Brakocevic.

"She had a lot of problems this season with injuries. Five or six days before starting the Olympic Games she had a big injury during training. She is not ready to play," he said.

China enjoyed a "home advantage" as several hundreds of Chinese fans flow into the Earls Court arena⁶ in London, while Serbia has their president Tomislav Nikolic on-the-spot support to the national women.

The Serbians showed strong determination to win from the first minute and they took an 8-3 lead with powerful spikes and solid blocks by wing spiker Brankica Mihajlovic and middle blocker Milena Rasic.

Chinese women, however, seemed quite nervous with chains of errors to allow their European opponents to expand their advantage to 13-3.

China staged a 7-5 run to catch up to 10-18, but their service and spike¹ errors cost them much. With an unanswered spike of Brankica Mihajlovic, Serbia took the set 25-16.

The Chinese recovered its rhythm and fought back strongly in the second set to take the lead 8-4 with Wang's powerful serves. They left the Serbians no time to adapt to their renowned⁷ fast-attack style and enlarged their advantage to 22-15 with sound blocks and tricky⁸ drops of middle blocker Xu Yunli and Opposite hitter Zhang Lei.

Serbia staged a 3-1 run to catch up 18-23. But China wasted no chance to take the set 25-18 with Wang's lethal⁹ spike and a duo-block with Xu.

The Chinese started to showcase fatal offense¹⁰ and solid block in the third set, which made it difficult for Brankica Mihajlovic and Milena Rasic to execute. They took the set 25-13.

The determined¹¹ Chinese exhibited ever higher quality play plus the powerful service of Wang, while the Serbians still could not find the way to catch up with the crafty¹² quick attack. With an attack mistake, Serbia surrendered the fourth set and the match 25-12.

China will play Turkey on Monday, who win the latest game 3-1 between the two at the World Grand Prix Finals in June.

"Turkey is also one of the stronger teams in Europe. We lost in the most recent game and we have had some targeted training, so let's see how it works," said Yu.

Earlier in the morning, Japan harvested an easy win over Algeria 25-15, 25-14, 25-7 in the opener of the event.

Besides Serbia, China will play in the same pool in London along with defending champion Brazil, world No.1 U.S., Turkey and South Korea. Italy, Russia, Japan, Algeria, the Dominican Republic and host Britain make up the other six-team pool. The top four teams to emerge out of each pool will play the quarterfinals.

1 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

2 tussle   

n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩

参考例句：

• They began to tussle with each other for the handgun.他们互相扭打起来，抢夺那支手枪。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

3 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 ace   

n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的

参考例句：

• A good negotiator always has more than one ace in the hole.谈判高手总有数张王牌在手。
• He is an ace mechanic.He can repair any cars.他是一流的机械师,什么车都会修。

5 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

6 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

7 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

8 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

9 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

10 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

11 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

12 crafty   

adj.狡猾的，诡诈的

参考例句：

• He admired the old man for his crafty plan.他敬佩老者的神机妙算。
• He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家，也是个狡黠的独裁者。