24/09/2011 22:48
Serbia thrill home crowd with opening win against France
2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women
Belgrade, Serbia, September 24, 2011. Serbia thrilled their hometown crowd with an exciting 3-1 (20-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-19) win against Pool A rivals France at SC Pionir Hall in Belgrade on Saturday evening.
Supported by 4,200 spectators, World No. 6 Serbia overwhelmed their opponents after a difficult start. The French showed great skills in the first set and the beginning of the second period, but were finally too irregular to push the hosts to their limits.
Serbia’s Jovana Brakocevic led her team with 20 points while France’s top scorers were Anna Rybaczewski and Helene Schleck with twelve kills.
The home squad entered the court very nervously, maybe too much impressed by the audience. France on the other hand jumped out aggressively for a 6-1 lead in the first set. Jelena Lozancic, Rybaczewski as well as Schleck led their team to a well- deserved 20-13 lead. Rasic brought the hosts closer, but a two-point gap at 19-21 was the best score for Serbia in the first set. Jovana Brakocevic hammered the ball into the net to offer France an unexpected 1-0 set lead.
The team of French head coach Fabrice Vial kept the momentum in the beginning of the second period. However, a 14-12 lead was not enough for the West Europeans as Serbian setter Maja Ognjenovic served seven times in row to turn the tables in Serbia’s favor, 19-14. The hosts now seemed much more focused, added several block kills and gave the French receivers a hard time with some tricky serves. Jelena Nikolic ended the set with another service winner 25-15.
The Serbs never looked back in the third and fourth set. Natasha Krsmanovic brought up match point at 24-18 in the last set, and Ognjenovic closed the contest out with a spectacular block on the right, bouncing the Serbian team and more than 4,000 fans into heaven.
Serbia head coach Zoran Terzic: “Congratulations to the French team. We played four times in European League this year and we have beaten them every time, but tonight I feel like we played against a different team. They played more aggressively. They surprised and shocked us with their serves, so we were confused; my players were nervous and scared a bit, like we were someone else, not the team I know. But we kept our focus, we fought hard and we won the match at the end.”
Serbia captain Jelena Nikolic: “It was a hard match tonight, especially because we played in front of our audience. As we all know, the first game is always difficult, it was expected to start a bit shaky. The high level of serves of the French team, strong and firm play led them through the entire match. We played better after the first set and we won this match. I’m sure our performance will come to a higher level tomorrow, as we will play against Ukraine, we have to play hard.”
France head coach Vial Fabrice: “Congrats to the Serbian team. It was a very difficult match tonight; we played well in the first and second set, but later we didn’t find a solution for the Serbian serves. It was difficult for us; we weren’t concentrated until the end. I hope we will play stronger and better tomorrow, against Germany.”
France captain Anna Rybaczewski: “Congratulations to the Serbian team. I have to say we played well in the first set, our serves were strong and hard, but we had a bad reception. Tomorrow, we will have another match, against Germany, so we need for sure a new game to lift the atmosphere in the team.”
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