体坛英语新闻：China secure top six finish at women's volleyball worlds with seventh straight win

BARI, Italy, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- China trounced Croatia 3-0 in Trieste Thursday evening to secure their berth in the top six at the 2014 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship.

Captain Hui Ruoqi scored 15 points and Xu Yunli and Zeng Chunlei added 14 and 13 respectively as China eased to the 25-12, 25-15 and 25-15 victory, their seventh in a row connecting the first and second phase.

With two more matches to play, the Chinese women have already secured a top three finish in pool E with 14 points from five wins and a berth in the final round in Milan.

The Dominican Republic remained as the other unbeaten team in pool E after rallying past Azerbaijan 3-1 Thursday afternoon.

Winning seven consecutive wins including four in full sets, the Dominican Republic kept alive their chance of making the top six at the World Championship for the first time in history.

World Championship leading scorer Polina Rahimova notched up a game high 26 points for Azerbaijan, but her team dropped the second match in two days in the second round pool E play.

Also in pool E, hosts Italy swept Belgium 3-0 and Japan rallied past Germany 3-2 to snap a two-game losing streak.

Olympic champions Brazil and world No. 2 the United States also reaped their seventh straight wins at this World Championship by beating the Netherlands 3-1 and Bulgaria 3-0.

Earlier on Thursday, Turkey came from two sets down to overcome Russia 3-2. Gozde Sonsirma was the top scorer for Turkey with 31 points while Tatiana Kosheleva led Russia with 32 points.

In the other match of pool F, Serbia overpowered Kazakhstan 3-0.

The United States, Brazil, Russia and Serbia were still in contention for their berths for the third stage in Milan.

Sixteen teams are playing in two groups in a round robin format with top three finishers from each group to advance to the Final Six round.