American teamwork finally got them over the line after a tough battle with Serbia
Kaliningrad, July 12, 2015 – USA coach Karch Kiraly said that Serbia were tough opponents after his side prevailed in a five set thriller (25-18, 24-26, 30-28, 19-25, 15-9).
“It was my first time in Kaliningrad and I like it,” said Kiraly. “The organisers did a great job. Today it was a hard game. Serbia served well, made a lot of changes and attacked from different points. We are trying to improve all aspects of the game.”
USA’s Karsta Lowe said: “We are very satisfied with the result. In the fourth set we allowed Serbian team to win several points and it was like a snowball. But after that we recovered.”
USA captain Courtney Thompson added: “today it was a great match. Serbia is a very strong team. We lost many points, but we can concentrate and win.”
Serbia coach Zoran Terzic said: “It was a very good game for us. We played well against maybe the strongest team in world for this moment. We made a really good job today. Three or four players started to play with the team only a few weeks ago and never played in such competitions like Grand Prix before. I must be satisfied about today’s result.”
Serbia captain Maja Ognjenovic said: “USA were luckier at the end. We can be satisfied because we are mixed team – some players did not practice enough. We hope that in Stuttgart, we will play better. We heard that Russian people supported and I would like to thank them for it. We are happy to have good relationships between our countries.”