Algiers, Algeria, June 5, 2016 - Kazakhstan captain Radmila Beresneva led her team to tap top-two spot in 2016 World Grand Prix preliminary round pool A3 in Algeria, defeating Mexico 3-1 (25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 25-23)
This was second victory for Kazakhstan after winning with hosts Algeria in straight sets on Saturday and losing to Peru 1-3 on Friday. Kazakhstan and Algeria met before in 2014, playing against each other at World Grand Prix and World Championship. Both matches were won by Kazakhstan in straight sets. Today best scorers were Radmila Beresneva with 16 and Lizbeth Sainz with 17 points.
Kazakhstan took the early lead and increased it to 12-6 against Mexico. Their rival was paralised and couldn't find the response for Kazakhs power in attack, led by Beresneva. Team's captain helped the team to close the set at 25-16.
In the second set Kazakhs kept the lead, but Mexico managed to keep the score close. Kazakhs block worked perfectly, with Kristina Anikonova, Irina Lukomskaya and Lyudmila Issayeva scoring 3 blocks each in the game. Kazakhstan won the set 25-20.
Mexico finally found the answers to Kazakhs play, taking the lead in the third set. Mexicans managed to stop Irina Shenberger and Yekaterina Zhdanova on the net, forcing coach Shapran to sub them out and send on court Katerina Tatko and Evgeniia Illina instead. They weren't enough to turn the score into their teams favour and Mexico took the set at 25-21.
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Both Tatko and Illina stayed on court in the fourth set, which turned out to be the most emotional and close between the teams. Both Kazakhstan and Mexico played point by point, with each team leading by one. A few time outs were taken at the end of the set to take the control of the result, but Kazakhstan stopped Mexico from extending the match until the tie break, winning the fourth set 25-23.