MONTREUX, Switzerland, Sept. 5 -- Paola Ogechi Egonu scored game-high 18 points to lift Italy over China 3-0 here on Wednesday in a preliminary pool A match at the Montreux Volley Masters.
Egonu converted 14 of her 22 spiking attempts and added three aces and one block as Italy upset the reigning Olympic champions 25-20, 25-13 and 25-13 to improve to an 1-1 win-loss record and keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the semifinals.
After claiming the gold medal at the Jakarta Palembang Asian Games last week, China rested most of their star players including Olympic champions Zhu Ting and Yuan Xinyue. Duan Fang led China with 12 points with Liu Yanhan adding 10.
Following Tuesday's opening 3-0 loss to Turkey, Italy rallied to dominate the match against China, leading 38-28 and 10-5 in spiking and blocking respectively.
Also on Wednesday, Russia swept Cameroon 3-0 and Poland outlasted Brazil 3-2 in a five-set thriller in pool B.
China will take on Turkey in the last round of the pool play on Thursday while Italy are to meet Switzerland on Friday. Eight teams are competing in this women's volleyball invitational tournament with top two finishers from each group to advance to the semis.