Russia serving it up
Russia are going to be dangerous at the World Cup with some big serves. World Cup website gives some interesting stats.
Tokyo, October 24, 2007: They may not have won the men’s European Championship last month, but the Russians are sure to serve up something special at the World Cup.
Led by tournament MVP Semen Poltavskiy, Russia provided four of the top five in the list of best servers at the continental championship in Moscow.
Poltavskiy topped the servers’ chart with an impressive 20 aces, Alexey Ostapenko was second with nine, and Alexander Kosarev and Pavel Abramov were fourth and fifth, respectively, both with six aces.
So Russia’s opponents will know that they must first tame the fiery serve and then control their counter-attacks if they are to keep the ball flying against Poltavskiy and Co.
It is safe to say that 26-year-old Poltavskiy is the most lethal server in the men’s game today. The Dinamo Moscow wing spiker also won this category in the 2007 World League Final Round, as well as the best scorer award with 77 points — 16 ahead of the next best, Reid Priddy of the USA. Needless to say, 10 of those 77 came from service aces. read more
