DOHA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion China finished the women's volleyball preliminaries by topping Pool B, after a straight-set win over head-coach-absent Chinese Taipei in the Asian Games on Wednesday.

Chinese Taipei, regarded as a medal candidate following its impressive victories over Costa Rica, Poland, Kenya, Japan and South Korea at the 2006 Worlds in Japan.

High-spirited Chinese Taipei started well but the taller Chinese team showed top-class spiking and defense, marching from 8-3 to 16-11 lead.

Chinese Taipei maintained sound fighting spirit, however, chains of serving and spiking errors at big points cost them dear and they lost the set 25-17.

In the second set, Chinese Taipei could hardly cope with China's big serving and quick attacks, going down 25-17 again.

China's spikers fought even more fiercely in the third set, leading 8-2 at the first technical time out and ended the match 25-17.

"Though height and power gave us an advantage, we had made cautious preparation because Chinese Taipei is quite a competitor," said Chen Zhonghe, head coach of China.

"We played better in serving and defense and Chinese Taipei has shown great fighting spirit," said Chen.

Wu Hsi Chih, assistant coach of Chinese Taipei, denied the absence of their head coach Lin Kuang Hung, who is being treated in hospital for pneumonia, had affected the performance of the players.

"Actually, I think we played better than the first two matches and I am glad to see my players have given their best, but out opponents are too strong," said Wu.

"The situation of our head coach is stable, but it's hard to say when he can recover and come to the court, but we have made strategies for every game and I have confidence in my players," he said.

China is likely to have a comfortable quarterfinal match as its first opponent may be the less-experienced Mongolia, while Chinese Taipei, ranked third in Pool A, might face a tough fight against in-form Kazakhstan.

Early in the day, South Korea stormed to a 25-10, 25-16, 25-20 victory over Vietnam, finishing the qualifying as Pool A runner-up.

Two Pool B matches will be staged in Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall, northwestern suburb of Doha later in the day, when Japan will meet winless Tajikistan and Kazakhstan will fight against Mongolia.

Nine teams are split into two groups to battle for the women's volleyball championship, with China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam playing in Group A and Kazakhstan, Japan, Thailand, Tajikistan and Mongolia in Group B.