MATCH INFO
Serbia cruised past the struggling Puerto Rico
Serbia's Natasa Cikiriz saving a difficult ball
Ankara, Turkey, August 14, 2011- Serbia outlasted the fighting Puerto Rico team in the way to a straight sets victory (25-23, 25-8, 25-21) in the third day of Pool C here at Baskent Hall in Ankara, Turkey on Sunday.
FIVB Volleyball Girls' Youth World Championship
Runners-up of previous FIVB Girls Youth World Championship and 9th world ranked Serbia improved their win-loss record to 2-1, what in case of USA's loss to China will enough to pass the Pool C. While Puerto Rico lost all games in this Pool, with record 0-3 went to Pool H.
Serbia decisively started the match with their powerful spikes and frequent tips. But Puerto Rico too committed to fight as well as they can and tried to catch up. Despite this at the first technical timeout Serbia led 8-5. After the break tough fight continued but dominance remained on Serbian side, who again used their difficult powerful attacks from Nikolina Lukic, Bianka Busa and blocks by Cikiriz. The STT came with the same leadership of Serbia and the gap between teams went on increasing toward the end of the set, 20-12. Serbia promptly overcame their opponents in the first set, 25-13.
The second set began with greater tension, however Serbia very soon took the control over the court in own hands and went into the first break with 8-1 lead. The situation did not change toward the second break as well, 16-3 advantage of Serbia showed their obvious superiority on the court. The set was ended with hit by Katarina Canak and overwhelming victory of Serbia, 25-8.
The last set started competitive, 3-3. But some mistakes made by Puerto-Rico allowed Serbia to run forward again. Ace by Canak brought Serbia to the FTT with 8-4 advantage. However Puerto-Rico managed to reach the draw by attacks of their captain Daly Santana and due to mistakes made by Serbia, 11-11. So that one more outside hit by Cikiriz gave Puerto Rico 16-12 led in the second TTO.
After the break Serbia did their best to increase pressure on Puerto Pico, and managed to catch up, 17-17, while continuing spikes by Busa and Lukic started to gain them advantage. Service lost by Santana was a turning point in this set, after wards some hits by Serbia decided their victory in this tight set, 25-21.
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