Serbia earned their ninth victory in the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup after they routed Kenya 3-0 at Park Arena Komaki on Saturday
Nikolic produced a solid output from the attack line, while Mercy Moim tallied the same number of points on a losing effort. The Serbians still played with the same intensity without their top hitter Brankica Mihajlovic, who got a breather in the middle of the first set.
Serbia opened the first set with three straight points and went on to utilise their height advantage and strength to drill the Kenyan defence. Mihajlovic’s backrow kill and Stevanovic’s two blocks extended the Serbian lead to 16-6, then Maja Ognjenovic added two more blocks that pinned the Kenyans to an 18-6 score. Even when coach Zoran Terzic replaced Tijana Boskovic and Mihajlovic, the Serbian frontline still overwhelmed the Kenyans in the opening set 25-11.
Kenya held their ground against the European side in the second set to keep the score even at 4-all. Serbia started another run and succeeded with a 12-5 advantage as the Kenyan attacks mostly landed outside. Serbia took a 2-0 set-advantage after they secured the second set 25-14 with a cross-court spike from Nikolic. Kenya gained edge over Serbia in the third set 9-7 but the Europeans retrieved the advantage at 11-9. Kenya fought fiercely to trail Serbia 21-18 but their opponents’ attack strength reigned to end set and match 25-19.