China volleyball side defeat Cuba in Macau

China showed no mercy to a young Cuba side as they thrashed the Latin Americans in straight games on the second day of the Galaxy Entertainment Women's World Grand Prix volleyball series' Macau leg yesterday.

Led by promising spiker Zhu Ting, who hit a team-high 19 points, the mainlanders took the tie 25-13, 25-20, 25-15 in just over an hour at Macau Forum.

China will take on the Netherlands in their last match today after the latter suffered a surprising 3-1 defeat by Bulgaria. The Chinese look strong favourites for the crown in the former Portuguese enclave before moving to the Hong Kong leg this week.

Coach Lang Ping was happy the players had stuck to her game plan.

"We had two instructions for the players and both were accomplished satisfactorily," she said. "First was about receiving, which we showed improvement in from the first game against Bulgaria, although I would say there were still some ups and downs.

"The second was serving as only the two middle hitters did a good job in the first match. Today, it generally improved."

While Zhu, 19, continued to perform in front of the net, promising setter Yao Di was also given an opportunity against the Cubans.