Japan Volleyball Worlds
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Brazil's Sheilla Castro, left, Fabiana de Oliveira, center, and Ad...
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Brazil's Sheilla Castro, left, Fabiana de Oliveira, center, and Adenizia Silva, right, celebrate after scoring a point against Puerto Rico in the first round game of the Women's Volleyball World Championship at Hamamatsu, central Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. At right is Brazil's Faviola de Souza. (AP Photo/FIVB)
Japan Volleyball Worlds
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Brazil's Sheila Castro spikes against Aurea Cruz of Puerto Rico in...
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Brazil's Sheila Castro spikes against Aurea Cruz of Puerto Rico in the first round game of the Women's Volleyball World Championship at Hamamatsu, central Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. At right is Brazil's Faviola de Souza. (AP Photo/FIVB)
Japan Volleyball Worlds
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Italy's Antonella Del Core, left, Paola Cardullo, center, and Fra...
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Italy's Antonella Del Core, left, Paola Cardullo, center, and Francesca Piccinini, right, celebrate a point win against Czech Republic in the first round game of the Women's Volleyball World Championship at Hamamatsu, central Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/FIVB)
Japan Volleyball Worlds
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Italy's Valentina Arrighetti reacts as Italy plays the Czech Repub...
In this official handout photo by Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Italy's Valentina Arrighetti reacts as Italy plays the Czech Republic in the first round game of the Women's Volleyball World Championship at Hamamatsu, central Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/FIVB)
Defending champion Russia stayed undefeated with a 25-18, 25-17, 19-25, 25-22 win over South Korea at the women's volleyball world championship on Tuesday.
Tatiana Kosheleva led Russia with 22 points while Liubov Shashkova added 17 in the Group D match. Russia and South Korea had already qualified for the second round.
Olympic champion Brazil also improved to 4-0 in Group B with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-20 win over Puerto Rico in Hamamatsu.
The Czech Republic rallied to upset European champion Italy 25-27, 27-29, 25-23, 25-22, 17-15. Italy dropped to 3-1 while the Czech Republic improved to 2-2 in Group B.
The United States overpowered Kazakhstan 25-17, 25-19, 25-19 to remain undefeated in Group C and post a 15th successive win. Destinee Hooker and Logan Tom paced the Americans with 15 and 13 points respectively.
Host Japan improved to 4-0 in Group A in Tokyo with a comfortable 25-9, 25-13, 25-8 win over Costa Rica, while Serbia stayed undefeated after eliminating African champion Algeria from second-round contention 25-15, 25-12, 25-21.
Poland, Germany, China and Turkey advanced to the second round, joining Russia, Brazil, the U.S., Italy, Japan, Serbia and South Korea.
