Defending champion Russia clobbered Mexico and China shut out Azerbaijan in the second day of the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship in Italy on Wednesday.

Russia is on the trail of its third straight title as they won over Mexico in three straight sets 25-17, 25-22, 25-13.

Regina Moroz led the Russian nationals with 13 points followed by Ekaterina Gamova with 11 while team captain Andrea Rangel top scored the Mexican side with 11 points.

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Russia is on top of Pool C of the tournament along with Netherlands and USA who also won over their opponents Thailand and Kazakhstan, respectively, also in straight sets.

"It's the first time that we meet this team, and we had very little information about them, so we tried to focus not on the game, but on ourselves and on our strengths," said Russia coach Yury Marichev.

China also had an easy time with their game against Azerbaijan as they shut them out 25-13, 25-16, 25-17.

Team captain Roqui Hui and Chunlei Zeng led the Chinese nationals with 14 points each while Polina Rahimova topped the Azerbaijanis with 9 points.

"We made a good match," China coach Jenny Lang Ping said. "Azerbaijan has shown us a surprise, they play very good volleyball. They have interesting spikers and blockers."

China now heads Pool D of the tournament with six points followed by Japan with four and Belgium with three points.

Also winning their match in Pool A is host nation Italy, who defeated Croatia in three sets 26-24, 25-15, 25-11.

The Italians head their pool with six points followed by the Dominican Republic and Germany with five and four points respectively.

In Pool B, Brazil leads the pool with six points followed by Serbia with five.

The top four teams of all four pools will advance to the next round in another set of round-robin in two pools, after which, the remaining top three of both pools will advance to the finals.

TagsRegina Moroz, Ekaterina Gamova, Roqui Hui, Chunlei Zeng, Jenny Lang Ping