RI grabs second win at U-185 VB Championship

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Indonesian men's volleyball team grabbed its second victory after defeating Russia 3-2 at the U-185 World Volleyball Championship match held here at the Senayan Indoor Stadium on Thursday.

The team previously won 3-0 over Chinese Taipei on Wednesday.

With the recent victory, Indonesia is currently leading among the five countries -- Myanmar, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Russia and Indonesia -- participating in the event, since the rest of the teams share one victory each.

Russia, which lost 0-3 to Myanmar on Wednesday's match, had learned its mistakes from the previous match, resulting in a first set victory over Indonesia.

Surprisingly, Indonesia's top players Robby Meliala and Aries Arizqon could not do much to score over the Russians during the first set as blockers Andrey Bobkov and Alexander Alishin were effective in barricading the Russian court from Indonesian attacks.

With the team's top spiker Alexandre Spiridonov, Russia stunned Indonesia by taking the first set 26-24.

However, Indonesian players bounced back in the second set and took a 4-1 lead but the Russians were not giving up easily.

Russia's Dmitri Mikhailov and Spiridonov kept struggling to score points but only managed to collect 17 points as Indonesia quickly closed the second set with 25-17 victory.

In the third set, Indonesian players started to find their rhythm and managed to deliver good attacks from the back line. Indonesia wrapped up the game by winning 25-12.

Victory was so near for the Indonesians as they managed to take a 16-13 lead in the fourth set, but they failed to close the game as most of the players, including Johan Rahmadi and Aries Arizqon made a lot of unforced errors. Russia won 26-24.

In the fifth set both teams struggled hard, scoring each points alternately.

However, this time it was Russian players who often conducted unforced errors by sending the ball out of the court or bouncing it back to the net, handing the 15-12 victory to the Indonesians.

Talking about the team's second defeats in the competition, assistant coach Ilya Volodarskiy said that he admitted that Indonesian team was stronger and better compared to his team.

"Your team is one of the strongest in this competition," Volodarskiy told reporters.

He added that although his team played better compared to its previous match against Myanmar, his players still conducted a lot of unforced errors throughout the match.

"Indonesian player number seven (Robby Meliala) was our biggest problem," team captain Gleb Kashitsyn added.

"We've seen him playing against Chinese Taipei from Wednesday and we already knew he is a great player. He is probably the best player in this competition," Volodarskiy said.

Preparing for the next match against Japan on Friday, Volodarskiy said that he would study video recordings from his team's previous matches to seek a better strategy.

Meanwhile, assistant coach of the Indonesian team Yunyun Yudiana blamed his players for underestimating the Russians.

"I know that some of players felt that they could beat Russia easily after Russia lost 0-3 to Myanmar yesterday.

"When Russia won the first set, our players were shocked ...," Yunyun said. He added, "Our defense was still weak ... we didn't have good counterattacks."

"We are lucky to have a one day rest before playing against Myanmar on Saturday. We will try our best to emerge as a winner in this competition," Yunyun added.