Japan defeats Serbia by 3-1 in a FIVB World Grand Prix match - Volleyball recap
The Japanese and the Serbian sides were matched up against each other on the 12th of August in a FIVB World Grand Prix match that took place in Komaki, Japan. The venue of the contest was the Park Arena Komaki. What followed on the courts was
a four set long struggle that ended in favour of the Japanese home team.
The first set of the match was fairly one sided as the Japanese were able to win it by quite a margin. However, the Serbians stepped up their game in the second but the effort was still not enough to scrap off a win. The loss of the first two sets of the
game caused the Serbians to play the third set with determination. The increased focus of the Serbians got them the third set win. The fourth set started off tough but as it neared the end, the Japanese picked up speed and sealed the deal on the match at the
following final set scores: 25-16, 25-21, 17-25 and 25-21.
The Japanese coach, Masayoshi Manabe, gave the following statements to express himself at the press conference after the match: “As my players said, the Serbian mistakes helped us. That was my impression, too. But our substitutes did a great job today and
that's why we were able to do well today.”
On the other hand, the Serbians coach, Zoran Terzic, shared his feelings in the following manner: “First of all I want to congratulate the Japan team. Tonight, they played better than Serbia and this is the only reason why Japan won. We made a lot, a lot
of mistakes in service and attack. In other areas we were the same or better than Japan. In attack a little better, in blocking I think we were equal, but we made a lot of mistakes and that is the reason why we lost the match.”
The Japanese were able to get the lead at 12-7 in the opening set that got extended till 16-8. The Serbians could not recover from the deficit and Japan got an easy win at 25-16.
The first technical time out of the second set saw the Serbians leading at 8-5 and the advantage stayed with them till the second technical time out. The game reached a tie at 17-17 but the Japanese managed a win at 25-21.
The Serbs were able to challenge the Japanese in the third set of the game as the Serbians had the lead at the second technical time out. Eventually, the set went the Serbian way at 25-17.
The fourth set was tied at 19-19 when the Japanese put on a spurt of speed and took the match to 23-20 that led them to a win at 25-21.
The Serbian player, Milena Rasic, was able to lead all scorers by tallying 19 points in the entire match while the Japanese Erika Araki topped her team by scoring 18 points.
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