Asian runner-up China suffered its second straight defeat at the 2003 men's volleyball World Cup as it lost to Japan 3-1 on Monday.

Japan, who finished a disappointing sixth at the Asian championship in Tianjin, China in September this year, started well in the all-Asian clash. Roared on by about 10,000 home fans, it raced to a 17-14 lead in the first set.

However, the Japanese suddenly lost steam after a 23-20 advantage while China ran off five straight points to take the opener 25-23.

Then the Chinese struggled with bad receiving and could not get their offense going as Japan easily took the second and third sets 25-21 and 25-18.

In the fourth set, China stayed within 20-18, but the Japanese took five of the last six points to wrap up their second win in a row.

"We had big trouble with our receiving today," said Chinese head coach Di An'he. "We normally have a receiving percentage of 65 percent, but today we only managed 48 percent."

"They (Japan) tried to find our big guys when serving, which made it very difficult for us," Di added.

The Japanese had nine aces in the match while China only managed two.

Yamamoto Takahiro converted 20 of his 39 attacking opportunities to score a game-high 23 points for Japan, 3-0 winners over Egypt on Sunday.

"He Takahiro did not play in recent matches between China and Japan. We were not familiar with him and failed to defend him successfully," Di said.

"We played the match with a relaxed mind, that helped us take the victory at the end," said Japanese head coach Tanaka Mikiyasu.

"We also did a good job in blocking today," he added.

Shi Hairong scored 20 points to lead the Chinese side. The Chinese captain hoped his team would have a better performance in Tuesday's match against the United States.

"After the first two matches, we have got used to the atmosphere and accumulated some experience," Shi said. "The United States is a very strong team, but we have got nothing to lose."

China went into the World Cup without veterans Zheng Liang and Wang Hebin, who helped the team win the second place behind South Korea at the Asian championship. Despite the second loss in two days, Chinese head coach Di did not regret not bringing the veterans to this tournament.

"Our main target here is to exercise young players and help them accumulate some international experience," Di said. "Our determination will not be affected by the two losses."

"However, we must learn from the losses and get to know what we should improve on to do better in the following matches," he added.

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