China's Li Juan (R) and the Netherlands' Debby Stam (L) vie for the ball during the first day of the final round of the 2007 World Grand Prix women's volleyball tournament at Ningbo Beilun Gymnasium, Ningbo, east China Aug. 22, 2007. The Netherlands beat China 3-2. [Xinhua]

Chinese women's volleyball team let the roaring host fans down as they lost 3-2 to the Netherlands for the second consecutive time in the opening match at the FIVB World Grand Prix final round on Wednesday.

The Athens Olympic champions, who slumped to the Netherlands 3-2 in Macao leg of the Grand Prix preliminary round just four days ago, clawed back from two sets down to level the match 2-2, only to hand in the tie-break 15-8 with their defense torn apart in pieces.

"It was a tough match. Both teams played very hard and good defense. It was a big cushion after we won the first two sets, but China just came back in the third and we made too many unforced mistakes," Netherlands coach Avital Selinger said after the match.

"But I feel quite proud my team showed great courage to win the tie break. It was a nice match to watch."

After skipper Manon Flier and captain Ingrid Visser spiked apiece, the Netherlands led the first TTO at 8-6 in the opening set and went on to hold an upper hand on China.

China finally found back their range and picked off three points in a row before levelling the match at 19-19.

The match then became hotly contested as it was evened several times until Debby Stam struck to open the account for the Netherlands at 28-26.

China stormed to an early lead 5-2 in the second set with sizzlers from Zhou Suhong and Li Juan, but then made too many unforced mistakes to allow the Netherlands to level it at 11-11.

Ma Yunwen rose to lead a 5-3 run for China, powering the team to a 16-13 lead, but the Netherlands again levelled it 17-17 adamantly.

With Li Juan delivered a spike, the host team went up 23-20, lighting the way of coming back into the game. However, the Netherlands took advantage of a string of errors from China to square the match at 24-24. The Netherlands then reeled off the last two points to take the set at 26-24.

The third set saw another tight competition. At 16-16, it was China that pulled away first, jumping to 23-21. However, Alice Blom and Flier were never pressured when they spiked each to help the Netherlands pull within 23-22.

China's veteran Yang Hao then created two set points with her powerful strike before the host team converted on the second one to pull one set back at 25-23.

Another Olympic champion Zhang Yuehong joined Yang in the next set to demonstrate their dominance as they led China 15-12 up, but all-rounder Flier and Visser were again on fire to present some spectacular spikes, helping the team overtake the lead at 23-22.

China finally clinched the fourth set at 25-23 before the tie break slump.

"My players play hard, it is not easy for them. We are outplayed on many aspects. We had ups and downs in the match and failed to snatch the key points," said China coach Chen Zhonghe at the press conference.

"The main problem came from blocking, which allowed the opponents to beat our defense."

"Besides, our younger players are not experienced enough. The veteran players are in poor form due to injuries."

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, six times winners Brazil did not seem to be firing on all cylinders thrashing Poland 25-21, 25-21, 25-17 while an awe-inspiring Italy got the better of world champions Russia 25-18, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17.

(Source: Xinhua August 23)