Serbia Vs Korea Details
An article from peoples daily giving some info on the Serbia- Korea game.
European runner-up Serbia held off bold challenge from South Korea to claim a 25-21, 25-23 and 25-15 victory at the women’s volleyball World Cup opener in Tokyo on Friday.
“It’s always hard to play the first match and we knew we would have a big chance to win if we had good service, I think our performance will be better and better in the next games,” said Serbia head coach Zoran Terzic.
It seemed to be a lopsided match at the beginning of the contest when Serbia raced to a 6-2 lead.
South Korea gradually found its rhythm, countering the much bigger Europeans with quick attack. The Asian girls steadily pulled it back to 10-10 before overtaking the lead at 17-14.
Serbia finally woke up to answer back with a 8-1 run for a 23-19 advantage while South Korea was slowed down by increasing unforced errors and shaky reception.
The South Korean girls managed to pull within 23-21, only to see a dink of Ivana Isailovic and a kill by Jovana Brakocevic sealed the first set for Serbia.
The second set saw South Korea erase a 15-10 deficit to tie it at 23-all, but Serbia ran off two points in a row to make it two sets to nil and went on to clinch an easy victory in the third.
“It’s the first match and we did not play very well, but enough to win,” said Jelena Nikolic, who had 13 kills from 33 attempts to lead Serbia with 17 points. “We won because we were more concentrated and more patient at crucial points.”
Brakocevic and Vesna Citakovic each contributed 10 points for Serbia.
South Korea’s best scorer was Bae Yoo-na, who had 12 points through seven smashes, four blocks and one ace.
“I think we played good game in the first and second sets, but we could not continue to do that in the third,” said South Korea coach Lee Jung-chul. “We still need time to improve our stability and combination.”
