China's Wang Lina, Zhang Na, Yang Hao, Feng Kun and Liu Yanan (L-R) celebrate victory over Japan in their women's quarter-final volleyball match at Athens 2004 Olympic Games, August 24, 2004. (Reuters)

China moved one step towards its second volleyball Olympic gold medal after 20 years, routing Asian rival Japan in straight sets in their quarter-final match of the women's volleyball tournament at the Athens Olympic Games on Tuesday.

With the victory, China became the first team to reach the semi-finals. The team next faces the winner between world champion Italy and three-time Olympic champion Cuba which was to play in another quarter-final later on Tuesday.

In another early quarter-final match on Tuesday, Russia also routed South Korea 3-0 to book a semi-final place. The Russians will play the winner of the United States and Brazil match for a place in the final.

China, which entered the quarters as the top finisher of Pool B with only one loss to Cuba during the group phase, proved too much for Japan who qualified for the quarters as the fourth-placed team in Pool A.

The winning weapon lies on China's wall-like blocks which earned it 10 points, seven more than Japan. The never-say-die Japanese tried everything to confront China over the net, but had to settle for the 25-20, 25-22, 25-20 defeat in one hour and 15 minutes.

"We played a beautiful match today," said Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe. "We lagged behind in the first two sets but we did not allow Japan to extend the lead. We hanged in the end and sealed the victory."

Japan started tough in the first set, running into a 5-3 lead and kept its advantage over the Chinese who did not find a way to defend its trademark fast attack.

But the trio of Zhang Ping, Wang Lina and Yang Hao began to demonstrate their attacking power and lifted China to catch up in the mid set and went to win the first 25-20.

The scenario repeated in the second as Japan went ahead 7-3. But China's comeback was punctuated by a four-point-streak, moving from a 14-14 tie to 18-14. The Japanese then looked short of energy to fight back and fell at 25-22.

Japan tried to hang on in the third set but after a tie at 15-15, China, the 2003 World Cup winner, responded with some solid blocks before a winning serve from Zhang ended the match at 25-20.

"The Japanese fought so hard that we had felt the pressure," said Chen. "But our players held their nerve and controlled the game."

Besides blocking, better serve was another deciding factor as China had six serve aces to Japan's two.

Wang was the best scorer for China with 12 points and another two Zhang and Yang all scored in double-digit figures. Kana Oyama led Japan with 16 points.

Talking about semi-finals, Chen said he does not care which team China plays.

"Both Italy and Cuba are very strong and we need to prepare for everything," Chen said. "Becoming a champion means you need to beat every rival. So there is no one I prefer to play."

The Chinese women's volleyball team won the Olympic gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. It suffered a setback after 1996 Atlanta Games where it won a silver medal but showed a strong comeback sign by winning the World Cup last year in Japan. 

(China Daily)

rout … in straight sets : （在連續(xù)的幾局中擊敗…，直落幾局擊敗…）

pool: a group（小組）

group phase: （小組賽階段）

punctuate: to stress or emphasize（加強或強調(diào)）