National team of Serbia
Mihajlović quickly went into her spiking rhythm as Serbia took an 8-6 lead at the first technical timeout in the first set. With her teammate Milena Rašić, she continued to smash the way through the Japanese defence, but the Japanese always defend well and stayed with the Serbians through 18-18. Saori Kimura then netted a serve and a dump shot at the net by Rašić opened up a two-point gap. Serbia moved three points ahead at 23-20 after a tip over by Jovana Brakočević and the set ended with two terrible serves, by Yuki Ishii and Aimi Kawashima.
In the second set Japan struggled and coach Masayoshi Manabe called a timeout at 2-6. Japan couldn’t change the momentum and started to make errors as Serbia kept the pressure on. Serbia was eight points ahead at the second TTO before winning another set.
Japan came out positively in the third set matching Serbia through to 8-8 but two spiking errors and a block by Rašić on Saori Kimura opened up a three-point gap at 11-8 and Japan were playing catch-up again. They caught up at 14-14 for the last time and got within a point at 17-16 before Serbia pulled away again, helped by Japanese errors.
Serbia had the advantage in blocking points, 9-6, while both teams had one service point. Japan made 21 errors to Serbia’s 15.
Serbia was led by Milena Rašić with 16 points and Brankica Mihajlović with 15. Japan’s top scorer was Risa Shinnabe with 11 points.
For more news from this competition, click on World Grand Prix 2013.
