Serbia sweeps Puerto Rico on fifth day of FIVB Men's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament
The fifth day of the FIVB Men's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament started off on June 7 with one of the matches being played between Serbia and Puerto Rico.
The tournament is being staged currently in the capital of Japan. Both the teams contested each other at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym in a match that ended in three straight sets with Serbia ending up as the victors.
The Serbians not only made a clean sweep over their opponents they also won each frame of the game by a comfortable margin. As a result, the scoreboard showed the following final set scores: 25-19, 25-17 and 25-18.
The coach of the Serbian team, Igor Kolakovic, shared his happiness on the win in the following words, “We are satisfied with the victory. We played without emotion and in a routine fashion but finished with a 3-0 victory.”
On the other hand, the coach of the Puerto Rican squad gave the following statements at the press conference conducted after the match was over, “We played our young players who did not have much experience. This was my plan going into the match. Our challenge
is to find a way to play with a strong team like Serbia. We learned from this match where we need to improve.”
Despite the loss, the Puerto Rican player Ezequiel Cruz, was able to get his hands on the title of the highest scorer in the match after tallying 14 points. In contrast, the most points scored from the Serbian side were 10, by Sasa Starovic.
The opening set saw the Serbians taking the lead at 5-4. After they had the advantage, the Serbians did not let go of it till the end and the Puerto Ricans kept trailing all the way till the end at 25-19. The second set started in much the same manner as
its predecessor but this time the Serbians did a quicker job of bagging the set at 25-17. The third set saw the Puerto Ricans put in some effort but by that time the Serbians were all playing in form and they managed to secure the frame at 25-18.
The recent win has enabled the Serbians to extend their winning streak in the tournament to five while the Puerto Ricans have not been able to manage a single victory so far.
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