MATCH INFO

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2011 – Russia scored a convincing 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 23-25, 25-13) victory over Serbia and advanced to the title match against Argentina in the 2011 FIVB Men's Junior World Championship to be played on Wednesday at Marcanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro.

 

A seven-time winner (1977, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1995, 1999 and 2005), Russia will battle for its eight gold medal against the South American team on Wednesday, at 4:00 p.m. Serbia and the United States will clash for their first ever medal in FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship at 1:30 p.m.

Russia used its traditional block power as the main weapon to overcome the Serbian side, as the winners scored an impressive 32 points through this element, 11 of them from Igor Filippov, compared to 8 by the defeated side. 

Russian outside hitter Oleg Tsentalovich topped the winners with 23 points  followed by Andrey Kolesnik (15), Leonid Shchadilov (13) and Filippov (13). Serbia's Aleksandar Atanasijevic was tops among the losers with 23 points while Uros Kovacevic and Vuk Milutinovic added 10 and 8 points respectively.

 

Russia started the match better and scored 4-1 with Shchadilov stopping Serbian star Atanasijevic. Serbian opposite did not get down and led this team´s reaction, spiking to tie it 6-6. Serbia took the lead with a serve point of Kovacevic, scoring 11-9, and improved it to 16-12 after a mistake of Kolesnik. Russia showed its block power in the end of the frame and, with Filippov stopping the Serbian attack, reversed the set 20-18. Keeping the advantage, the Russian ended the first set with a powerful spike of Kolesnik: 25-22.

In the second frame, Russia stayed ahead for the first time when Serbian Milan Peric spiked out out bounds to score 12-10 for the Russians. With a good block of Alexey Pluzhnikov over Kovacevic, Russia was in front 16-11 in the second technical timeout. Serbian most important players could not escape from Russian block and Filippov stopped Kovacevic to score 21-12. In the end, Filippov blocked for the seventh time in the match to close it 25-15.

Serbia scored the first three points of the third set, but Russia took advantage of the rivals's mistakes to quickly take the lead in 5-4. With Milutinovic and Atanasijevic stopping Russia attack and Kovacevic spiking with all his technique, the Serbians  recovered the control of the set 13-10. Following good serves of Tsentalovich, the Russian tied the score at 13-13. In the end of the frame, Peric won a ball dispute in the net to put Serbia close to control at 24-22 and the definition was confirmed following a backcourt spike of Atanasijevic: 25-23.

With Kolesnik spiking, Russia got an early 5-1 lead in the fourth set. Dominating the net, the Russians went to the first technical timeout with an 8-2 margin in the scoreboard. The gap increased to 12-3 when Kovalev stopped Peric and Serbia asked for a timeout. Keeping the same rhythm until the end, Russia did not have trouble to seal it 23-15 with a serving ace of Pluzhnikov.