Hong Kong, Hong Kong, July 21, 2017 –
Serbia cruised to a three-set victory over
Russia (26-24, 25-14, 25-19) to win the first game in Pool G of the FIVB World Grand Prix.
Serbia's Milena Rasic topped all scorers with 18 points trailed by her teammate Brankica Mihajlovic while Russia's Ekaterina Efimova led her team with 15 markers.Serbia kicked off the first match in Hong Kong with powerful attacks but at the same time losing marks due to repetitive service errors. Russia closely fought back with their marvelous defense on the net, thus kept the score close in the first half of the set. Tijana Boskovic gained for Serbia with her hammering strikes, but still found it difficult to widen the gap. The teams traded off marks at the latter half of the set and Serbia finally closed the set at 26-24.
As the game proceeded, Serbia managed to lead the game despite of Russia’s enforced attacking power and the spikes by their experienced spiker, Mariia Frolova. Serbia worked their way to achieve a comfortable gap, while Russia tried to make a comeback with her undebatable cohesion, yet the gap was widened instead. Serbia stayed ahead and sealed the set at 25-14.
Serbia kept up with their momentum at the start of the third and last set, with the team’s undefeatable attacks and blocks made by Jovana Stevanovic and Milena Rasic, Russia fought a hard battle. The set was sealed victory by Serbia 25-19. , which ended the first game in Hong Kong this year.
