Serbia Comeback Stopped Short, Team USA Wins 3-2

After Friday night�s Team USA easy 3-0 win over Serbia, both coaches foretold a much better match on Saturday. They were right. USA eventually won the match 3-2 with scores of 25-22, 25-12, 26-28, 23-25, 15-13 but not before Team Serbia made a strong comeback attempt in the final three sets. The comeback ignited the strong Serbian showing of supporters in the crowd bringing a fun international style feel to the match.

Team USA started the same rotation as Friday with Rooney, Anderson and Lee in the front row. Holt, Christenson and Sander were in the back and Shoji as libero. The set was tightly contested throughout with 9 ties including 20-20 after a Matt Anderson serve went long. Max Holt had two quick kills including the one resulting from a Serbian free ball pass back over the net pushing a 22-20 lead. Serbia pushed back for the final tie at 22-22 after Christenson was called reaching over the net. Anderson grabbed the lead with a thundering line shot with only a single blocker up. Two stuff blocks brought the USA the first set win. Anderson had 8 kills and Max Holt had 5 kills on 5 swings. Marko Podrascanin led Serbia with 5 kills and 1 block.

The second set was more reminiscent of Friday night�s set three. Max Holt started the blowout at the 6-6 mark with three straight aces including one resulting from an original out call being reversed by a Team USA challenge. The FIVB World League is using a camera system to view lines and the top of the net during matches. Each coach has 2 challenges per set. If they win the challenge, they retain the right to use the challenge again. Serbia�s attack was repelled with 6 USA blocks during the set. After outside hitter Milos Nikic hit the antennae Coach Igor Kolakovic subbed Aleksa Brdjovic in for starting setter, Nikola Jovovic, to shake things up. Not much changed as Anderson and Sander continued to crush the ball. The set ended on a Serbian center line violation.

In the third set, Serbia came out strong finding ways to score and taking advantage of USA hitting errors. Coach John Speraw substituted Paul Lotman for Sean Rooney to serve at the 10-14 mark. Lotman ended up staying in the OH position through the rest of the match. It looked like Serbia was going to win the set after an Aleksander Atanasijevic kill off the high hands of the USA block brought the score to 24-22. Matt Anderson came to the rescue with two kills from the left side to knot the score. Taylor Sander was up to serve but mishit the serve sending it sailing into the stands far past the end of the court. Team Serbia captured the set, 28-26 when Podrascanin stuffed Anderson. Anderson�s 9 kills and Sanders 7 were not enough to carry Team USA.

The fourth set was a duel with 14 ties. Serbia was taking advantage of USA hitting errors and improved blocking. Neither team led by more than two points. A Paul Lotman serve hit the top of the tape and dropped for an ace tying the score at 23-23. Serbia quickly finished the set with a Nemanja Petric smash from the back row and an Atanasijevic kill from the right side.

The fifth set had both the USA and Serbian fans chanting and standing on their feet throughout. Coach Speraw chose to dial back the rotation and have David Lee start off serving. USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead after a Lee float serve dropped in front of the Serbian serve receive. Podrascanin tied it 5-5 with another stuff of Anderson. A David Lee quick attach made it 8-6 and time to change sides. Lotman tooled the left side block to setup Team USA with their first match point but his serve went long making it 14-13. The Serbians subbed in Dragan Stankovic as an extra blocker during their serve but Max Holt was able to finish the match with a quick middle attack.

Team USA was led by Anderson with 29 kills. Taylor Sander had 21 kills and 5 blocks. Max Holt ended up with 4 aces. Serbia was led by Atanasijevic with 18 kills and Podrascanin with 4 blocks.

Team USA will be taking on Bulgaria next Friday and Saturday nights once again in the Chicago area.