Hamamatsu, Japan, September 19, 2019 – Serbia beat the Netherlands 3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-19, 26-24, 15-9) in the first match on the fifth day of the FIVB Women’s World Cup at Hamamatsu Arena on Thursday.
Serbia coach Aleksandar Vladisavljev: "Today was a big win for our team in five sets against a very strong Netherlands team. I’m proud of our motivation to play although we were down 2-0. It was a big comeback for us and I think our strong will decided this match. I’m really glad that the fans in Hamamatsu had a chance to watch really good volleyball here. At the end of this first part of the World Cup, I’m a bit sorry because we lost our first match against Brazil, but we are very satisfied with all our matches here in Hamamatsu, even our first two matches against Brazil and USA. Our young team came here to give their maximum and to learn something new."
Serbia captain Ana Bjelica: "I’m very happy that we won again, our third win in a row. It’s a big thing that we won against this team. Everybody knows that Holland is one of the best teams in the world. I’m happy that I can help my teammates to feel this and to play against big players. The girls did a really great job until now and I hope we will continue like that."
Netherlands coach Jamie Morrison: First, congratulations to Serbia; it was a great comeback in that match. They should be proud. I thought my team played good volleyball in the first two sets and then our level dropped in terms of effort, aggressiveness and execution in the third. We have to do that for longer periods of time in order to sustain in this tournament. It’s a long tournament and we still have chances to win in the next round and the round after that.
"I thought we played really well in the first two sets. I think it came down to we were able to run our offence really well. We were serving well and I thought the coordination between our block and our defence was good. In the third set, [Serbia] started playing better. I don’t know if we were tired or our level of attention dropped. And then our service pressure dropped and then it was going downhill from there. I thought in the fourth set, we got back to playing some decent volleyball; Serbia was just better. And then in the fifth set, we just got stuck in one rotation for five points and it’s hard to win a set of volleyball when that happens. I thought we played very good volleyball in our three wins, especially the win over Brazil. Tonight, I think we played very good volleyball for two sets. I don’t know if it’s because we are tired because of the length of this tournament or if it’s just because we lost focus, but we have to be able to play good volleyball for longer than two sets."
Netherlands captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues: "First, congratulations to Serbia. I think we played good volleyball in the first two sets but didn’t keep our level. Serbia came back into the game and we let that happen. I think a lot of easy plays we didn’t do well, it’s very disappointing after being 2-0 in front and we let it slip away. I think we can play very good volleyball but we must keep that level. Now, we have too many ups and downs, so we have to get more stable. So, we have a lot of work to do and must keep our heads up high."