VOLLEYBALL: Australia has finished the overseas leg of its World League Volleyball tour with a disappointing 3-0 loss to Serbia in Belgrade.
The Volleyroos had been hoping to finish their long tour, which has taken them from Australia to Brazil to Italy and across to Serbia, with a strong result.
But Serbia won an even opening set 25-23 they were able to outmuscle the young Australian side, who were once again without captain and leading points scorer, Tom Edgar.
The Volleyroos made several errors in the opening points of the second set, but fought back to level before errors once again proved costly.
Coach Roberto Santilli threw several changes in the final stages of the match, but was not able to stem the confidence of a rampant home side, losing the final two sets 25-20, 25-20.
“I can not be satisfied with that game,” Santilli said.
“We played the first set, but then we almost stopped. We made a lot of mistakes.
I think the guys also showed they are tired after the long trip they have had. It’s time to go home.”
Paul Sanderson with 13 points and Lincoln Williams with 12 lead the scoring for Australia, but it was young gun Nehemiah Mote who was the stand-out player for the Volleyroos.
Mote, who gets the chance to play in front of his home crowd in Sydney next weekend, finished the match with four blocks and three points in attack, an encouraging performance ahead of two big weekends in Australia.
Australia finishes it’s overseas tour with just the one win, a 3-0 defeat of Italy, and five losses.
“Today we made a step back after the progress we made in the past month, “ Santilli said.
“But we are in a good way, the team is working and we are progressing well. Today we had a bad day, but this is what happens, especially when you have a team that is so young.”
It is the first time Australia has played in the top division of World League, and stand-in captain Greg Sukochev believes the team is on the right track.
“We made a few more errors, our ball control wasn’t as good as it should have been,” Sukochev said.
“Losing is not the end of the world. We’re going back to Australia, and we can fight back no matter who is on the other side of the net. We can build our confidence.”
The Volleyroos fly back to Sydney to take on Brazil next Saturday and Sunday, before heading to Melbourne for two return matches against Serbia the following weekend.
Star player Tom Edgar will rejoin the team in Sydney after taking a break, but injured Olympian Travis Passier remains in doubt.
ROSS SOLLY FOR VOLLEYBALL AUSTRALIA
