Chinese men's volleyball team suffered a poor start at the 22nd World University Games as they lost 3-0to Japan on Friday.

In their first Group D match,the Chinese team were almost bettered in nearly every aspect including serving,spiking and blocking by the Japanese rivals as they lost 25-21,25-13,25-13.

In their first ever major international tournament,the Chineses quad,at an average age of 19,looked excited at the beginning as ace spiker Yuan Lingxi made several successful attacks to put them ahead at 4-1.

But the Japanese,composed and had more experience with three internationals on board,came from behind with powerful serves and better blocks to take the opening set 25-21.

The second and last set saw more mistakes by the Chinese players while the Japanese used more tricky serves and strengthening their blocking efforts to win 25-13in both sets.

Japanese spiker Shibata Kyohei,who was in the Asian Volleyball Championship last year with his teammate Matsuta Yusuke,led the team with 13points.Matsuta grabbed 10.

The Chinese made 32mistakes in all compared to w:st="on">Japan's 17.

"They bore so much pressures on themselves that they lost composure and rhythm during the game,"said Chinese coach Zhao Aimin,a physical education teacher who was leading his students from Tianjin University of Industry to compete in the men'volleyball event at the Universiade.

"They only brought half of their potentials to display and they made too much errors in serving,"said Zhao.

Whereas Tokunaga Fumitoshi,the trainer of w:st="on">Japan,was pleased with his players.

"They were good today,"he said."We are in a tough group with Russia but we hope we do better than last time."

Japan

sit in the 10th place in Beijing Universiade two years ago when Russia finished third behind the United States and France.

Hong Kong of China fell victim to the bigger-sized Portugal squad 3-0in another Group D match.

In men's other actions,w:st="on">Turkey outclassed w:st="on">Serbia and Montenegro3-1(25-22,32-30,20-25,29-27);South Korea eased past the United Arab Emirates 3-0(25-15,25-16,25-17);Australia,3-1(22-25,26-24,25-19,25-18).the United States scraped past Canada 3-2(25-27,25-22,21-25,25-18,15-13);the Netherlands bt Denmark 3-1(25-16,25-27,25-23,25-15);Ukraine beat the DPR Korea,3-1(19-25,28-26,25-14,25-21);

In women's event,South Korea crushed Hong Kong,China 3-0(25-9,25-13,25-13);Italy defeated Mexico 3-1(25-27,27-25,25-18,25-22);Russia cruised past Algeria 3-0(25-10,25-10,25-12);Thailand bt Chinese Taipei,3-1(25-22,20-25,25-17,25-18)