Egypt showed good performance
but lost against Serbia
 Novi
Sad, Serbia, June 3, 2007-: Egypt Men's Volleyball team showed
an exciting performance for the second day in a raw but lost to
Serbia in straight sets in the second weekend of the 2007 World
League at SCD Vojvodina Hall in Novi Sad, Serbia on Saturday.
Egypt was near to win the first set but lost narrowly 28-26,
then lost the second and third sets 25-20 and 25-22 against the
last World Championship semifinalists.
Both teams started with strong services. The first point of the
match was an ace service of Milos Nikic, young Serbian receiver.
But, it was the only lead of Serbian team till the finish of the
set. Egyptian team was much stronger on the service than
yesterday. An ace service of Ahmed Salah, brought the lead to
Egyptians5-3. The guests were very good in attack, too as Saleh
Fathy led the team with eight points in the first set. However,
Serbs were persistent. Again with strong services (5 aces in
this set), they managed to overturn the result. First it was
19-18, then 20-19, but Egypt was the first to have a chance to
close the set with 24:22 lead. The guests even had the set ball,
but in the counter-attack, player Number 13, Mohamed Badawy was
out. The same player was blocked by Marko Podrascanin in the
next rally, and Serbs were on 24:24. Egypt had two more chances,
but couldn’t manage to do it. At the end, Podrascanin gave
Serbian team the first chance to finish the set with strong ace
service for 27-26. Egypt made a mistake, and Serbs won that set
with 28-26. Milos Nikic was the best player in the first set
with 8 points, great in attack (6-6), and with two ace services.
From the beginning of the second set, Serbian team played very
good and fast volleyball. Head Coach of Egypt, Grzegorz Rys,
decided to call time-out at 7:4. Egypt continued to play good,
especially in the block and in the defense. That helped Serbian
correction Dejan Bojovic to make new points for Serbia. When the
Serbian team led 18-10, Head Coach Igor Kolakovic decided to
make some changes. But that encouraged Egyptians, who managed to
come as near as 19-16. At 20-17, Serbian Nikola Kovacevic,
blocked the counter-attack of Ahmed Salah. It was the last
chance of Egyptian team to do something more in this set.
Egyptian Head Coach Grzegorz Rys gave the chance to the players
from the bench, and in the second part of the set receivers on
the court were Mohamed El Daabousi, and Elian Aly. However, that
didn’t help, and Serbs won the set by 25-20.
The third set, Egypt started with other setter, Number 9,
Mohamed El Mahdy, who brought his team to the lead of 4-1.
Serbia didn’t find it hard to equalize at 4-4. They had five
points in a row, so they came to 6-4, thanks to some fine
blocking of Dragan Stankovic. After that, many service errors
were made. Egyptian team found it easier to play in that
situation, so they went to the second TTO with the lead of
16-14. The guests were up to 18-15, after two consecutive
mistakes of the Serbian team. But then, Serbs managed to
overturn the result. Milos Nikic’s service brought Serbia five
points in a row for 20-10. Serbian libero, Samardzic, showed
some remarkable skills. By the end of the game, Serbs managed to
preserve their advantage. Serbian Number 11, the best player of
this game, Milos Nikic, used the second match point to finish
the set at 25-22, and the match at 3-0. |
