Melbourne, Australia, July 4, 2015 - Serbia outplayed Australia 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 29-31, 25-18) to hand the home team their eighth defeat in 2015 World League.
Serbia started well into the match and raced off to an early lead 8-5. The hosts managed to tie scores at 11-11 but Serbia regained the composure thanks to great serves from Nikola Kovacevic and pulled away into a 16-13 lead. The visiting team remained focused and took the set 25-22.
In the second set Serbia seemed to cause a momentary lapse in concentration as the home side took an early 6-2 lead. However, after the first technical timeout the visitors pulled it back to 10-10. With strong spike by Aleksa Brdjovic Serbia hit the front at 13-12 and were able to maintain a slender advantage until the late stage of the set. Brdjovic won then the crucial point to Serbia at 24-21 and Nikola Kovacevic finished off the set with an ace at 25-21.
The third set was a nervous affair, with the momentum swinging first one way and then the other. As Australia took a 21-18 lead it seemed to be all done for the hosts but Serbia refused to give up and put the score back level 23-23 as Aleksandar Okolic pulled off a block on Thomas Edgar. The late stage of set three proved to be a real thriller as Serbia did not convert many set points allowing Australia to close it out at 31-29.
Set four saw an even start, but as Sasa Starovic showed his serving and spiking skills Serbia went up 16-12 at the second technical timeout. Australia were unable to come back at the end of the set and Serbia took it comfortably 25-18 on a Uros kovacevic off-speed roll.
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