Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15, 2016 - Two European teams, Russia and Serbia, will play for one semifinal spot in women’s volleyball tournament at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They play each other in the third quarterfinal at the Maracanazinho on Tuesday.
The two teams have met 11 times on the global stage with seven wins for Russia and four victories for Serbia.
The Balkan squad won the last two encounters with the Russians, both in five-sets and both in Japan. The Serbs took a 3-2 (23-25, 25-27, 25-21, 25-20, 15-12) victory in an FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix game on June 24 of this year in Kyoto. Before that, they mastered a 3-2 (22-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-23, 15-12) win in Sendai in an FIVB Volleyball World Cup 2015 match on August 31.
Russia and Serbia met in the preliminary round of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. On August 17 of that year in the Chinese capital, the Russians shut out the Serbs with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-20) victory.
Russia arrive at this quarterfinal as Pool A runners-up with four wins, one loss (to hosts Brazil) and 12 points.
With 94 points, their Nataliya Goncharova is the second best scorer of the pool round in Rio.
Russian players are currently leading three of the seven individual charts at the tournament - Ekaterina Kosianenko for best servers, and Anna Malova for best diggers and for best receivers.
Serbia finished third in Pool B with three wins, two defeats and 10 points.
Two of their players, Brankica Mihajlovic and Tijana Boskovic, are sharing the seventh position in the Best Scorers chart of the tournament with 74 points each.