Novi Sad, Serbia, June 18, 2015 - Aleksandar Atanasijevic scored 19 points to lead Serbia to a 3-0 (31-29, 27-25, 25-19) victory over Australia in a tighter affair than the scoreline suggests with the opening two sets going to sudden-death before the home side took the final set comfortably to seal the win.
The opening to the first set saw both teams scoping each other out but the early exchanges turned on a reverse call at 4-3 with Serbia edging into a four point gap to lead 8-4 at the first technical time-out. Australia were playing catch-up but slowly crawled themselves back into the set to level at 21-21. There was little to seperate the two sides as they entered sudden-death with both sides having chances to end the set before a Lincoln Alexander Williams spiking error saw the home side take the first set 31-29.
The second set continued to show how both sides were evenly matched with no side able to gain a sufficient early lead and it continued towards the latter end of the set despite Aleksandar Atanasijevic in fine spiking form for Serbia. The tie again went into sudden-death and this time Serbia wrapped up the second set ealry with Atanasijevic getting the crucial block to take the set 27-25 to put Serbia 2-0 in front.
As with the opening two sets, the third was another tight contest with Australia's Paul Sanderson keeping the Pool A bottom side level as the set hit the midway point. However Serbia were intent on finishing this early and opened up a 19-16 lead before extending their lead to five points and eventually sealing the tie 3-0 with a final set 25-19 win.
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