Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016 - Russia and Korea both started off their Rio 2016 campaigns on a high note and would certainly like to continue that way. They will lock horns on Monday in a battle for second victory in women’s Pool A and this time it is expected to be much tougher for each of them.
Russia achieved a speedy 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-16) win against Argentina and proved to be in great shape for this competition. Ekaterina Kosianenko hammered out as many as eight aces while Nataliya Goncharova became the game’s best scorer with 14 points. Still, coach Yuri Marichev was not completely satisfied. “We can play better than that. We have to prepare better. We can improve,” he said after the match.
Korea took advantage of Kim Yeon Koung’s 30 points to turn things around in their match against fellow Asians from Japan and claim a 3-1 (19-25, 25-15, 25-17, 25-21) victory. “I hope we continue playing like this,” Kim said. “The Russian players are really tall and they have really good spikers, so we have to prepare well for them.”
The most recent encounter between Russia and Korea at a major international competition occurred at the FIVB Volleyball World Cup on August 30, 2015, when the Russians took a straight-set 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-22) victory in Sendai, Japan.