Thailand go down fighting to strong Serbia
Thailand went down to Serbia 3-1 (18-25, 23-25, 25-19, 19-25) in the opening game of week two at the FIVB Nations League in Macau yesterday.
Despite having veteran setter Nootsara Tomkom back in the line-up, Thailand found the powerful Serbians, led by Tijana Boskovic, too hot to handle as they suffered their third defeat in the campaign.
Thailand lost to Netherlands (3-0) and hosts Russia (3-1) last week before beating Argentina (3-0) in Yekaterinburg.
Thailand play China today at 7pm (Thai time) before meeting Poland in the final game of Pool 7 tomorrow at 4.30pm.
After dropping the first set, Thailand picked up their pace and played much better in the second. At one point they led by seven points before the Serbians rallied.
The team continued to push on in the third set and succeeded in cutting the deficit from two sets to one.
However, Serbia again proved too strong when it mattered to take the fourth set and the match.
Onuma Sittirak was Thailand’s top scorer with 15 points, while captain Pluemjit Thinkaow and Hattaya Bamrungsuk had 11 each.
Serbia’s Boskovic led with 30 points, while Milena Rasic added 13.
In Toyota, Japan, the Netherlands edged Belgium for a 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 23-25, 31-29, 15-10) victory in Pool 5 at Sky Hall Toyota.
Lonneke Sloetjes finished with 26 points, including 21 spikes from 49 attempts, as
well as three vital blocks as the Dutch survived a match point to stretch their unbeaten run in the competition to four matches after winning each of their three games in Russia last week.
In Suwon, Russia defeated Italy 3-0
(26-24, 25-12, 25-23), while hosts South Korea defeated Germany 3-1 (23-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-16) in Pool 6.
The 2018 FIVB Women’s Nations League, a new annual international tournament contested by 16 teams, replaces the former World Grand Prix.
The teams are divided into four pools of four teams and will play five straight weeks in the league rounds. The top five teams will then join hosts China in the final round in Nanjing.