China beat Poland 3-1 Friday in Hefei for its second straight victory at the Hefei leg of the 2004 World Grand Prix women's volleyball tournament.

The Chinese women, who swept Dominican Republic 3-0 on Thursday, claimed the 25-19, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-15 victory in one hour and 34 minutes.

Yang Hao made 18 kills in 29 tries to lead China with 19 points. Zhang Ping and Liu Ya'nan added 13 and 11 points respectively.

Down by two sets, Poland led all the way for a 24-19 lead in the third. China ran off four points in a row to make it 24-23, but Niemczyk Malgorzata drove a ball out of bound to pull one set back for the European champion.

"The Polish team changed a setter and its rhythm in the third set, we could not get our blocking and counter-attack going and lost control of the game," said China head coach Chen Zhonghe.

Chinese spikers bettered their offense to take an easy victory in the fourth set.

Poland was led by Przybysz Aleksandra's 15 points.

The Chinese women jumped to a 8-1 lead and held on to take the opening set 25-18.

Poland stayed within 15-14 in the second set, but China pulled away with a 6-1 run for a 21-15 lead and never looked back.

Earlier on Friday, reigning world champion Italy beat Dominican Republic 25-20, 23-25, 29-27 and 25-19 for its opening victory at the four-team round-robin competition.

China play Italy and Poland take on Dominican Republic on Saturday as the tournament enters the third and the last day.