China dominated Japan (25-11, 25-10, 25-18) in a high energy matchup in the first classification game of Men's Sitting Volleyball at the CAU (China Agricultural University) Gymnasium on Thursday, September 11.
Although both teams came out with fiery enthusiasm, China rode the momentum from Wednesday's upset over Iraq to overpower Japan 25-11 in the first set. Despite Japan's tireless effort, converting several miraculous diving digs into scores, China's swift and powerful attack pelted Japan's defense into submission.
China jumped out to a 4-0 lead to begin the second set and never looked back. The unraveling of the Japanese team seemed to fuel China, as it became more and more aggressive throughout the set. Japan struggled with ball control, and attempts to answer the bombardment of spikes by China (33 total) landed mostly out of bounds. Li Mingfa led China's attack with eight spikes. To the team's credit, Japan still did not lose its enthusiasm nor relinquish its effort, diving for returns and celebrating points won, despite a 25-10 throttling in the second set.
The third set was a mirror of China's prior dominance. Despite Japan's moderate scoring run that brought the gap to only four points (14-10), China's wall of blockers led by Zhang Zhongmin (three blocks) prevented Japan from putting enough points on the board to make a difference. Tanaka Koji led Japan's scoring effort with only five points.
This is China's second straight win of the tournament.
(BOCOG September 11, 2008)