Serbia&Montenegro - Russia 1-3

Serbs try to block Russia's Roman Iakovlev (PHOTO: Reuters)

Berlin, GERMANY, September 14 (www.volleyball2003.de) - Russia has won the first medal of the 2003 Men's Volleyball European Championship in Germany. In the small final the team from Russia defeated the ex-titleholder Serbia&Montenegro with 3:1 (25:11, 24:26, 25:19, 25:23).

The question was: How did the team from Serbia&Montenegro deal with yesterday's extreme close defeat against Italy? The Russians had lost their match straight and they had the better start in today's match for the bronze medal. With fast attacks and excellent serving skills of Iakovlev the Russians took off to 5:1 and forced Travica to take a time-out. Without success: Russia went into the first technical time-out with a 8:2 lead. Serbia&Montenegro didn't find their rhythm at all. After another ace of Egortchev Russia had broadened the gap to 16:6 at the second technical time-out. Nothing worked for the Olympic Champion, they could not kill the block, their attacks failed or did not hit the court. Russia took the first set home with a fast attack extreme clearly with 25:11.

The team from Serbia&Montenegro decided to fight. And that's the way they presented themselves: aggressively! The Grbic brothers killed two blocks and after two further blocks against Iakovlev and Abramov Serbia&Montenegro took off to 11:5. A great defence of Abramov Russia caught up to 10:15, but still the teams seemed to have switched roles. Now it was the team from Serbia&Montenegro who dominated the set. However, Russia came back and forced Travica to take a time-out (22:20). The Olympic Champion remained cool and equalled to 1:1 in set with their 26:24 after three unused set balls.

Russia was not shocked by losing the second set and took the lead in the beginning of the third set (6:4). Both teams served harder now and the spectators could see the will of both teams to win the bronze medal after not making it into the finals. However, the Russian team went into the second technical time-out with a 16:12 lead. The Serbians lacked concentration, showed poor service skills (Mester and V. Grbic 16:22) and could not prevent loosing the third set 19:25. The starting six of the team from Serbia&Montenegro were supposed to win the set. And they had the better start with an ace of Nikola Grbic and an attack of his brother Vladimir (3:5). The Russians fought with their hard serves. Again an ace of N. Gribic led the team take the lead (10:8). And again Russia didn't give up (14:14). Until 18:18 both teams performed equally. Serbia&Montenegro scored two important points (22:20) with excellent blocking skills and once again Russia caught up (22:22) and even had one set ball (24:23) and promptly used it (25:23).