Serbia's Zoran Terzcic giving signals to his players during the match against China
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 12, 2016 – Serbia’s coach Zoran Terzic was happy to see his team playing topflight volleyball in the straight-set victory over China on Thursday taking time to credit the players for the level of concentration they showed throughout the match.
Zoran Terzic, Coach of Serbia: Of course I am happy. Today we played very well and I am especially glad with the way we played in the first set. There was a moment when China made some good plays but my player kept the focus. We are playing better and better, according to our plan, and this is the best we have played in the tournament. Now we have to think in the quarterfinals and I hope we don’t have to play against the first place team of the other pool.
Lang Ping, Coach of China: The Serbian team played very good, and they blocked and served very well. In the last set we had the opportunity to win when they gave us a chance, but we made too many errors. It happens when you are dealing with young players.
Milena Rasic, Player of Serbia: We didn’t expect to win 3-0 against a team as strong as China. We have a lot of respect for them, but before the game we made a deal between us the players of winning 3-0 or 3-1. I think the key for us was the blocking.
Hui Ruoqi, Captain of China: Serbia are very strong especially their outside hitter (Brakica Mihajlovic) and opposite (Tijana Boskovic). Actually, even they also have great middle blockers. They served excellently in this match. Their jump serves gave us a lot of problems on reception. We did not play really well today. We have to be a little bit more patient. After this match, we need to believe in ourselves that we can get that chance.
Brankica Mihajlovic, Player of Serbia: It was a very good match for us today, almost perfect. The most important thing is that we played very well. This performance was the best that we’ve had so far in the tournament especially we came from a loss against USA the other day, so it was a good comeback for us. I am glad that we finally found our rhythm. This is definitely the right moment to perform well and get ready for the next opponent. We have a good team and each player knows the tasks that they need to do. This system is really working for us. Of course, Boskovic and I are tasked to make as many points, but also to be focused on other things. This is great because it’s always difficult to play against China. The have very fast balls but our concentration was there and we did the best that we can to get go after their attacks.