Serbia’s Uros Kovacevic
It was the fourth victory against two losses with eleven points for Serbia while Japan suffered their third loss of the stage and remained winless in six outings.
Uros Kovacevic topped Serbia with 14 points, all via attacks, and was followed by Bojan Janic and Sasa Starovic who finished with 10 points apiece. Kunihiro Shimizu had a match-high 17 points for Japan and Tatsuya Fuzkuzawa added 9 in the loss.
Serbia held a 9-4 advantage in the blocks department and edged their opponents 4-3 in the aces category.
Serbia took a 7-4 lead in the opening set behind two consecutive blocks by Lisinac and Mitic on Fukuzawa and Shimizu. Serbia was in front 8-4 after an erratic spike by Fukuzawa. Two attacks from Kovacevic kept the difference safe. Shimizu’s big spike after two Serbian errors reduced the distance to 12-11. Starovic responded with a massive hit and continued with an ace off the net cord. Fukuzawa landed a sharp shot and Ishijima served too long for a 16-13 score in favor of Serbia. Two more spikes from Kovacevic increased the gap to 19-14. Ishijima and Tomimatsu combined to cut the margin to 23-20. Janic connected off the block for set-point at 24-20 and Kovacevic finished it at 25-21 with his sixth point of the set.
Serbia went in front 8-7 in the second set when Lisinac scored with a block on Shimizu. The difference increased to 12-9 after the block of Janic on Ishijima. Suzuki and Starovic traded kills. Rasic blocked Yoneyama and, after the spike of Shimizu, Kovacevic scored again for the 16-12 score. Mitic served an ace for a five-point lead at 18-13 forcing a time-out. Shimizu recorded his tenth point with a cross-court smash and Fukuzawa scored with a big blast. The ace from Kondoh cut the distance to 18-16. The score evened up at 21-all when Yoneyama blocked Janic and the same Janic hit the antenna with his spike. Shimizu netted his serve and the attack of Yoneyama sailed long. Shimizu scored with a big hit from the back court to keep the set going but once again Kovacevic closed the action at 25-23 with a hit off the block.
Lisinac’s spike on a quick attack down the middle broke a tied-score for an 8-7 lead in favor of Serbia. Japan’s bench called for time-out when Janic landed his spike for a three-point difference at 10-7. Lisinac and Shimizu traded kills. After one Japanese error, Rasic scored with a blistering spike and Kovacevic followed with another bomb for the 16-10 score. Atanasijevic missed with his serve and Fukuzawa blocked Kovacevic to cut the difference to 18-15. At 19-16 Atanasijevic hit one that ricocheted off the Japanese block. Shimizu parlayed spike with an ace. The block from Fukuzawa on Atanasijevic reduced the difference to 23-22. Kovacevic hit a monster kill for match-point. Atanasijevic crashed his serve into the net but the spike of Shimizu landed out of bounds and Serbia sealed the 25-23 win.
