Serbia
Milena Rasic paced Serbia with 18 points including five blocks in the victory. Teammate Jovana Vesovic added 12 while Jovana Brakocevic and Sanja Starovic each contributed eight tallies. Chen Wang Ting and Wang Sin Ting led Chinese Taipei with nine points apiece.
Serbia held a huge 18-3 advantage in blocks and also led 5-1 in serving aces. The winners commited 14 errors to 20 by the defeated side.
Chinese Taipei moved out to a 4-2 lead in the opening set after a pair of Serbian errors. A spike by Milena Rasic made it 4-3 and Serbia then tied it on a block by Rasic. Tsai Yin Feng‘s spike put Chinese Taipei up 6-5. Chinese Taipei displayed some good cominbation play early and led 8-6 at the first TTO. Jelena Blagojevic‘s service ace evened the score at 8-8. A nice block by Wen I Tzu took the score to 11-11. Serbia then took a 15-11 lead after a return error by Chinese Taipei. The Serbs made it 16-12 at the second TTO on a big spike by Rasic before a spike from Wang Sin Ting slowed the Serbian advance at 17-14. Maja Ognjenovic’s block gave Serbia a 19-15 margin as they moved toward taking the set. Chinese Taipei called a timeout trailing 22-16. Wen’s spike moved Chinese Taipei to within 22-17. A receiving mistake by Serbia made it 23-19, but Chinese Taipei then committed an unforced error and the Serbs took the set 25-19 on a spike by Rasic after a long rally. Rasic scored six points for Serbia in the set, while Wen led Chinese Taipei with four.
A spike by Jovana Vesovic saw Serbia begin the second with a 3-1 lead. After falling behind 5-1 on another spike by Vesovic, Chinese Taipei called a timeout. Serbia scored two more points to make it 7-1 before Wang’s spike halted the surge. The Serbs led 8-3 at the first TTO. Chinese Taipei trailed 11-5 after Wang’s crosscourt spike. Rasic then served into the net for 11-6 before a block by Wen saw the score to 13-8. Stefana Veljkovic soared for a spike to put Serbia up 15-10 and then Vesovic’s spike gave the side a 16-11 lead at the second TTO. Sanja Starovic‘s dink at the net made it 18-12 for Serbia but Tsai Yin Feng‘s block saw the Serbs pulled back to 18-14. Jovana Brakocevic made a nice dink at the net to put the Serbs up 20-15. Trailing 21-15, Chinese Taipei called a timeout. Two service aces by Brakocevic then made it 23-15 for Serbia and they quickly ended the set 25-15.
Serbia rapidly moved out to a 5-1 lead in the third set but a service error by Vesovic took the count to 6-3. A spike by Blagojevic saw Serbia enter the first TTO with an 8-4 advantage. Chinese Taipei pulled within two points at 8-6 after Serbia sent two spikes long. Brakocevic’s spike sailed long and Chinese Taipei was within a point at 9-8 and then pulled even on another spike that went long, but Serbia took the lead right back when Tsai Yin Feng made a service error. Serbia went up 13-11 on a nice block by Brakocevic before another block from the middle sent Serbia into the second TTO with a 16-11 margin. Serbia came out of the timeout inspired and took the next four points to make it 20-11. Chinese Taipei called a timeout to try and stop the slide and a spike by Wang seemed to help coming back on to court, but Serbia came right back on a blast by Brakocevic for 21-14. Veljkovic’s spike moved the count to 22-15 as Serbia closed in on the match. Vesovic drilled a spike for 23-15 and Tijana Malesevic followed with a service ace to take it to match point at 24-16. Rasic ripped one final spike to give Serbia the set 25-16 and the match.
