Russia recovers from the shock of defeat in second match – European Qualifiers
After a shaky start in the tournament, women’s national volleyball team from Russia got its form back in the second match against Serbia on Thursday. Russians posted 3:1 (29-27, 22-25, 25-16, 25-19) victory over Serbia and kept the hopes alive to play in
the semi-finals.
The reigning world champion Russia lost its previous match to archrival Poland. However, the head coach Sergey Ovchinnikov gave a perfect plan to his team in the next match and Russia recovered from the shock of defeat.
Russian Jovana and Natasha delivered wonderful serves in the opening set of the match. They scored early points when Serbia was yet to be on board. As the game progressed, Serbia counter-attacked and created the first tie of scores at 7-all. Russians retook
the lead but again Serbians caught the opponent at 15-15. The game of ‘hit n run’ continued until the ending moments of opening set. Finally, Russia seized first-set win with narrow gap of two points at 29-27.
Serbs showed their power in the following set and hit back aggressively. They offered strong offence and also did a great job at defence. With good combination of attack and defence strategies, they managed to hit the equaliser in second set. They tied the
game by sending 25-22 on board in second frame.
The see-saw battle continued in third set and both teams tried to take lead. Nonetheless, luck was on Russia’s side as the world champions improved to 2-1 by claiming third set. Serbian squad failed to match its performance with Russians ended up with 16
points in third set.
Russian side was totally shaped up to put an end to the tussle in fourth set. They dominated the scene in fourth frame and denied all the efforts put by opponents. Russia captured the third set and announced 3-1 victory over Serbia.
The coach and captain of Russian team expressed delight about their comeback victory in the competition. The skipper Maria Borisenko shared her thoughts after the match in following manner, “It was our last chance to stay in contention and we won. We are
happy we still have our chances to go to the Olympics. This was not an easy match for us.”
Serbian head coach Zoran Terzic commented, “Today I am more satisfied since we played better than yesterday, but not enough to win. I wish Russia to qualify for the Olympics Games from Ankara as I would not prefer to see them in Japan.”
Next up, Russia will be challenged by the Netherlands. The Russian team has got its form back and it is likely that Dutch opponents will not create much of trouble for them.
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