FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championships Recap: Tuesday's Pool A matches
The first round of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women’s Volleyball World Championships in Japan took another step towards determining which teams will advance beyond the first round
Tuesday. The top four teams from each pool of six will advance to the second round.
Pool A
Serbia vs Algeria
Serbia improved their record to 4-0 against a hapless Algerian team, who saw their record fall to 0-4, in straight sets (25-15 25-12 25-21). The loss knocked Algeria out of contention for the second round.
Sanja Malagurski and Drgana Marinkovic lead Serbia with 10 points each, and Faiza Tsabet and Zohra Bensalem each had eight to lead the Algerian team.
“It was a game like we expected, maybe a little more difficult than we expected, but this is good for us,” said Serbia’s coach, Zoran Terzic. “In a competition like this, it’s very difficult to stay in
our rhythm. Tomorrow will be a much more difficult game for us.”
Serbia will play the Pool’s other undefeated team, Japan, on Wednesday.
Poland vs Peru
Poland was able to improve their record to 2-2 with a 3-0 (25-10, 25-15, 25-16) win over Peru, who saw their record fall to 1-3. The win didn’t quite clinch a second round spot for Poland, but it will
be near impossible for them to fail to advance to the second round now.
Joanna Kaczor led the Polish team in points with 13, while Peru’s captain, Leyla Chihuan, led her team with eight points.
Poland dominated the match with strong blocking, and an even attack that saw three players earn points in the double digits.
“Peru is definitely a better team than they showed today,” said Jerzy Matlak, Poland’s coach. “After seeing how they played against Japan and Serbia I was really afraid of this match. But we played really
well in all our elements, all parts of the game. So practically, we didn’t allow Peru to show their strengths and that’s why we won.”
Peru will face Costa Rica (1-3) Wednesday. The winner of that game will advance to the second round with Poland, Japan, and Serbia.
For Poland to be eliminated in this round, they would need to lose to Algeria, and Peru would have to beat Costa Rica while scoring 80 more points than Poland scores in their match- almost a mathematical
impossibility, but not quite.
Japan vs Costa Rica
The final Pool A match of the day saw the home team, Japan, crush Costa Rica in straight sets (25-9, 25-13, 25-8). Japan remained undefeated at 4-0, while Costa Rica, now 1-3, will have to fight for their
lives against Peru Wednesday.
Japan’s star spiker, Saori Kimura, scored 17 points for Japan, while Costa Rica’s best scorer, Verania Willis, had only five points.
“Japan played a perfect game both strategically and technically, and we learned a lot from them today,: said Costa Rica’s coach Braulio Godinez. “I had hoped we’d play better. Japan made almost no mistakes
and played practically a perfect game.”
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