SAITAMA, Japan, November 22, 2006.-  Pumped-up Puerto Rico beat China 3-1 in the first match of Pool A in the FIVB Volleyball World Championship for Men.

Puerto Rico won 25-17, 25-13, 21-25, 26-24 on their third match point to improve their win-loss record to 2-3 and drop China to the same mark.  Puerto Rico jumped above China on points-ratio to book their place in the top four.

Hector Soto topped Puerto Rican scorers with 16 points. Luis Rodriguez and Victor Rivera contributed 12 points apiece and Rene Estevez and Jose Rivera each had 11 tallies.

“Today's result is very satisfying. It was a very important game and we could not show our best play. Both teams made many big mistakes but I am very pleased that we can go into the second round,” said Carlos Cardona, the coach of Puerto Rico .

In Nagano, USA advanced to the second round based on points-ratio with a straight sets defeat of Iran 25-19, 25-22, 25-23 in Pool C. American David McKienzie had 15 points.

USA, Czech Republic and Venezuela finished with 2-3 records but only the first two moved to the next phase of the tournament.

In Fukuoka , France defeated Cuba 3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 21-25, 25-17) to complete their Pool B campaign with a 4-1 win-loss record. The Cubans dropped to 2-3.

Both teams join Brazil and Germany, advancing to the second round Pool F in Hiroshima, where they take on the leading foursome from Pool C in Nagano.

Cuban Michael Sanchez had 16 points, Yasser Portuondo added 14, and Raydel Corrales scored 11.

In Sendai , Serbia - Montenegro will start the second round with a valuable unbeaten record after storming past Canada in straight sets 25-18, 25-18, 25-17 with another polished performance in Pool in Pool D. Fred Winters scored 13 points for Canada.