China
Xu Yunli led four China players with double digits in the score charts with 17 points, including seven blocks. Hui Ruoqi added 14 with three aces, while Wang Yimei and Yang Junjing tallied 11 points apiece. Serbia’s Milena Rasic finished with 14 and Stefana Veljkovic had 10.
China held advantages of 11-9 in blocks and 7-2 in the aces category.
With Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic watching, Serbia raced into a quick first-set lead of 12-3, with solid defence from libero Suzana Cebic and the co-ordination of setter Maja Ognjenovic combining with the offense of Ivana Djerisilo, Rasic and Sanja Starovic. China recovered from their shaky start, but Serbia never looked like losing their lead, winning the set 25-16.
China started the second set much better. Key player Wang served an early ace and contributed several crucial kills and blocks. Hui Ruoqi also scored with an ace and was influential as China went ahead 9-4, and kept their lead through the set despite the good play from Starovic and Veljkovic. China won the set 25-18.
China dominated the start of set three, with Zhang Lei spiking two winners then serving during a series of successful points. Xu and Hui also contributed well as they got 13-3 ahead. The arrival of key player Jovana Brakocevic and the consistency of Brankica Mihajlovic saw the Serbs regain composure, but the influence of Wang and Hui kept China comfortably ahead, and they won 25-13.
Set four was similar, with Zhang, Hui, Xu and Wang all scoring heavily for China, who simply had too much power for a good Serbian side, staying ahead through the set to win 25-12.
China play Turkey in their second preliminary match on Monday, 30 July, while the Serbians will face Korea.
All the results from Olympic matches can be found here:
Volleyball – Men Volleyball – Women
