World runners-up China breezed past Peru 3-0 here Thursday afternoon to stay in title contention at the end of the first round competitions of the 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup.
In the absence of top scorer Zhu Ting, who was rested by Jenny Lang Ping after receiving a minor injury to her right foot in Wednesday's 3-1 come-from-behind win over South Korea, the Chinese women improved to a 4-1 win-loss record with the 25-11, 25-18 and 25-17 victory.
World champions the United States also finished the first round play with a 4-1 record after clean sweeping Algeria 3-0 earlier on Thursday.
China coach Jenny Lang Ping said it's important for her side to improve through the last five matches in Matsumoto.
"During the tournament, we want to keep improving so we can play better. For every match, we have a different objective and each player should be at their best for each game; that's important," she said. "So far, our speed is improving, but it's difficult to say our condition is 100 per cent. We've had five difficult matches in Matsumoto because of the problems we had before we came here, so in these five matches we've tried to make an adjustment."
Middle blocker Yuan Xinyue received the Most Impressive Player award after scoring game-high 16 points for China and Zhang Changning, Zeng Chunlei and Liu Yanhan added 12, 10 and nine respectively.
Following an opening 3-0 win over Algeria, Peru have lost four matches in a row without taking one set. Peru stayed within 20-18 in the second set, only to find China run off five points in a row to wrap up the set.
