Zeng Chunlei celebrates with the team during the match against Serbia
Macau, China, June 18, 2016 - China leads pool D1 as the only undefeated team. Coach Jenny Lang Ping was satisfied with her team's attitude in the match against Serbia, especially when Chinese had to face some new faces on the other side of the net. Serbian coach Zoran Terzic decided to use different players throughout the match.
Jenny Lang Ping, coach of China: “Today Serbia played their second-string team in the first set and we can see their depth in quality. China gained a lot from today’s match too, because despite the fact that we lack knowledge on some of their players and we played very passively in the first two sets, it has been an important learning process for us with our continuous change of players and tactics throughout the match. We understood what we did well and what we lacked in our game, and all players have acquired valuable experience.”
Zoran Terzic, coach of Serbia: “It was a very interesting game and I hope the spectators have enjoyed this game as much as the game we played against Brazil. We are definitely satisfied with the result as we played a five-setter against China. Today we played a different line-up compared to the team that played against Brazil, and our performance showed that every player in my squad deserved to represent Serbia at international level.”
On choosing different roster for the final set: “It is always difficult to make changes at the end of the match, especially when some of the players have not played in the match for nearly two hours. I did not want to risk any injury to my players even when we had to chance to beat China in the Grand Prix, as we have to think about the most important competition of the year for every team which is the Olympic Games.”
Hui Ruoqi, captain of China: “Today’s win is a great team effort and an important test for us as Serbia’s blocking and attack were of very high quality. We need to improve on the way we adjust our play during the match, and we wish we can deliver a better performance tomorrow.”
Maja Ognjenovic, captain of Serbia: “Both teams played good volleyball and it was a long, good game. Unfortunately we lost because we did not have enough energy at the end of the game. At the beginning of the match China did not play their best volleyball, but they finished the game well after they changed some players.”