The world champions came from behind to top the consecutive two-time Asian winners in the tie-breaker in Brasilia
Uzelac had great success against the Japanese block, getting 19 kills
Things have started to change for Serbia in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 as after a frustrating winless opening week in Antalya, the reigning world champions started Week 2 on the right foot on Tuesday, in Brasilia, Brazil.
With basically the same players that were in Türkiye two weeks ago, the Europeans overcame Japan, one of the top teams in the tournament’s first week, in the tie-breaker to open their account in the VNL 2023 with a 3-2 (16-25, 25-20, 16-15, 25-20, 15-10) win.
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The victory, which moved the Serbians one spot up in the standings to 12th place, was the first of the team under the guidance of new coach Giovanni Guidetti, who was hired to replace the departing Daniele Santarelli after the team’s victory at the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship.
Serbia had four players scoring in double digits, including Bjelica, with 13 points
Rising star outside hitter Aleksandra Uzelac, who’s just 18, played a pivotal role in the Serbian victory, producing a match-high 23 points (21 kills, one ace, one block). Outside hitter Katarina Lazovic, with 16 points, and middle blocker Jovana Stevanovic, who played her first match in the VNL 2023, and opposite Ana Bjelica, with 13 each, also had productive performances.
“It wasn’t easy,” setter Sladjana Mirkovic said. “This is our first victory and it means a lot. The opening week wasn’t good for us and we’re looking to come back. I feel like we’re growing, we’re playing better every day and we’ll keep pushing. The Japanese are great and they defend a lot, so it was hard for us to handle this match physically. But we showed our quality and the work we did at the end. We never gave up.”
Japan had in their star outside hitter duo their main point-scorers against Serbia. While captain Sarina Koga tallied 21 (19 kills, one ace, one block), Arisa Inoue added another 18 (16 kills, one ace, one block). Kotona Hayashi also reached double digits with 12 while Mayu Ishikawa made her VNL debut, coming off the bench to score four points in the tie-breaker.
The Serbian block was a major factor in the duel, with the Europeans scoring 14 points, including the game-winner, to Japan’s six. The Asians led all three other statistical categories, getting more points from kills (66 to 58), aces (six to four) and opponent errors (22 to 21).
In the first match of the VNL 2023 in Brasilia, earlier on Tuesday, rookies Croatia won their first set in the tournament, but couldn’t stop the unbeaten United States, who came back to secure a 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-15) victory. The Americans are one of the three undefeated teams in the VNL 2023 and rank third in the standings, behind China and Poland, while Croatia are 15th.
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American Olympic champion opposite Jordan Thompson and outside hitter Alexandra Frantti, who both made their debuts in the VNL 2023, led all scorers with 17 points each, while teammate Khalia Lanier tallied 13. Croatia got 15 points from outside hitter Laura Miloš and 14 from each of opposite Andrea Mihalhjević and outside hitter Dijana Karatović.
The other four teams that are part of Pool 4 will play in Brasilia for the first time on Wednesday, with Germany facing Thailand at 17:30 local time (20:30 UTC) and hosts Brazil meeting Korea at 21:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Thursday).
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