BEILUN, Southeast China, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Olympic bronze medallist Cuba beat Russia in straight sets for its opening victory at the Beilun Cup China International Women's Volleyball Tournament in China's second largest port Beilun on Friday.

    Nancy Carrillo scored 16 points to lift Cuba over Russia 25-20,25-15 and 25-19 in one hour and 21 minutes.

    Playing without all its big names, who were having after-season vacations at home, the inexperienced Russian team fought bravely early in the third set for an 8-2 advantage.

    However, Cuba rallied from the technical time-out to overtake the lead at 14-12 with a 12-4 burst before running off four points in a row to conclude the match.

    "We had very good preparations for this match. It's the first match of the tournament and I think the players still need time to find chemistry," said Cuba head coach Felipe Calderon.

    Despite the loss, Russia's Italian head coach Caprara Giovanni was confident in his side's future.

    "It was a beautiful match for Russia," Giovanni said. "Althoughwe lost, we played better and better through the match. It's good enough for us to learn and improve."

    "Maybe we are not the best team in this tournament, but from this team I'd like to choose some players for the first team," he added.

    Cuba started well against the Russian women, who won the second place at the Athens Olympics in 2004, racing to a 5-2 lead in the opening set. Russia pulled within 10-9 through consecutive spikes from Olga Bukreeva and Lesya Maknno and a mistake of Cuba.

    Then Cuba surged away again with a 4-0 run to go up 15-10 and never looked back.

    Yahima Oritz sparked early in the second set as she helped Cubaclinch an amazing 9-0 lead with her storming services. The Cuban women went on to take the second set 25-15. Enditem