Serbia storm past Mexico

Uberlandia, Brazil, October 8, 2013 - Serbia maintained their unbeaten pool B record at the Men's U23 World Championship with a 3-0 win (21-18, 21-14, 21-19) against Mexico on day three of competition at the Arena Presidente Tancredo Neves.

Serbia started with heavy hitters Uros Kovacevic and Aleksandar Atanasijevic on the bench, but wing spiker Filip Stoilovic (4) and opposite Dusan Petkovic (4) stepped up to provide the spiking points as Serbia won the first set 21-18.

In the second set, Serbia restricted their errors and kept the pressure on Mexico with serving, specifically middle blocker Srecko Lisinac. Serbia moved ahead early in the set and then closed it out 21-14 for a 2-0 lead.

Mexico kept the third set close with wing spiker Roberto Rincon keeping his team's points total moving, but Serbia were able to take the set 21-19 for a 3-0 win. Petkovic finished as Serbia's top scorer with 11 points.

Mexico's top scorer, Rincon doubled his total of points in the tournament, scoring 14 to give him 28 points in the competition.  

Day four of competition is the penultimate round of pool matches with Serbia against Iran in a match that could decide the pool B semi-finalists, while Mexico face Venezuela.

Jorge Miguel Azair Lopez, Mexico coach: "Since we learned about our pool in this World Championship, we knew this was all about learning and developing the team. We're trying to figure out which of these players can make it into the senior team. Today we played with a very fighting attitude and we worked on that aggresiveness, so I'm not worried about the last results."

Dusan Petkovic, Serbia player: "This wasn't an easy game as anyone might think. We respect every opponent and Mexico forced us to play at a very high level. This match will be important for us, not only because some reserve players were able to play but also for the others to rest. The whole team will benefit from this."