Kaliningrad, Russia, June 17, 2016 – Srecko Lisinac led Serbia to a 3-0 (25-22, 34-32, 25-17) in Pool C Group 1 of the World League as Russia disappoint in front of 6000 home fans.
The in-form Lisinac silenced the local support as he scored 14 points to lead the scoring on the night, whilst Egor Kliuka was Russia's top scorer as they fell to a comprehensive straight sets loss to their fellow European side.
The game was the 25th meeting between the sides in the World League with Russia leading the head-to-head 18-7, but it was the twice beaten finalists that had the last laugh as they took the honours against their three times World league champions.
In the first set Russia claimed an early 8-3 lead due to strong spikes from Egor Kliuka and blocks from Dmitry Muserskiy and Artem Volvich. Marko Podrascanin performed an ace and Serbia reduced the gap to 2 points. Serbia fought back to level the score at 10-10 and soon went ahead 13-11 due to defensive problems in the Russian team. Dmitry Muserskiy sent the ball into the net and Serbia trailed again to the second technical timeout 16-13. Russia narrowed the point defecit down to 2 points at 20-22 but upon resumption Serbia continued to put pressure on and forced Dimitry Muserskiy to serve into the net for a 25-22 first set win.
The second set began very tight, point by point, with neither the team gaining the edge but Russia earned a slight advantage 8-6. A couple of errenat attacks from Russia allowed Serbia to once again reduce the deficit and leavl 10-10 before edging in front 16-13 with spikes from Milos Nikic and Lisinac. After the second technical timeout Russia cut down the gap to 20-19 and a single block from Kostyantyn Bakun extended the lead to 22-21. Russia continued to stay in the set as both teams traded points in sudden death before a decisive Serbian block saw them edge the set 34-32.
The third set started like the carbon copy of the pervious one. In this case Serbia got a slight lead 8-7. Then Serbia found some weak points on the Russian side to edge in front 12-8 and force Vladimir Alekno to use a timeout. However this proved fruitless as Serbia kept their advantage 16-12 and despite of all Russia's effort set was effectively over as they took a 25-17 win for a 3-0 straight sets victory.