Sendai, Japan, November 25, 2006: Serbia and Montenegro needed all their experience and quality to beat plucky Puerto Rico 3-1 in Pool E on Saturday afternoon.
SCG won a tough match 25-18, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23 to improve their win-loss record to 4-0 in the second round and drop Puerto Rico to 1-3.
Ivan Miljkovic set the tone for the first set with a leisurely winner from the right on the very first point of the match, before Puerto Rico's own points machine, Hector Soto, replied with his 130th point of the tournament.
The Caribbean country enjoyed early success at the net through captain Luis Rodriguez and Rene Esteves, but Andrija Geric quickly put them in their place with an imperious winner.
Geric then proceeded to batter the Puerto Rico defence with a series of booming serves, setting up easy winners for Novica Bjelica and Goran Vujevic when the ball spun back invitingly.
Puerto Rico needed a TO trailing 7-4, and returned for Soto to split the Serbia-Montenegro defence with a drive down the middle.
The gulf in class was obvious, and when Slobodan Boskan fired a service ace to move his team ahead 15-9, Puerto Rico called their second TO of the set.
Soto scored two successive points, with another flying winner and then a service ace, but the Europeans were in control at 16-11 at the second TTO.
Miljkovic was popping up everywhere to keep SCG in front and Bjelica gave another demonstration of power serving as they took the opening set 25-18. Fittingly it was Miljkvoic who closed out the set with another mighty leap and crashing spike from the right.
In the second set, Victor Rivera became more of a threat for Puerto Rico, and Soto's ability to beat the SCG block drew appreciative applause from the audience. When Vujevic fired wide from the left, Puerto Rico held the lead at 7-6.
As the second set progressed, SCG went to sleep, and head coach Igor Kolakovic called a TO trailing 12-10 to wake them up. Southpaw Jose Rivera unsettled the SCG defence with some ferocious serving, and Soto won another easy point after Boskan had been forced to show his soccer skills to flick the ball over the net when an attacking move broke down.
Soto moved Puerto Rico to the second TTO with a three-point lead when his well-disguised dipping serve dropped into a big space in the SCG court, 16-13.
Vujevic and Bjelica then began to close the gap, and Puerto Rico needed a TO after falling behind 19-18 and again at 22-20, the latter after Bjelica had served another bullet to soften up the defence and Geric had rammed home the loose ball.
Geric brought up set point at 24-21 but they missed the first two, prompting Kolakovic to take them off for a TO. On the resumption, Soto sent his serve long, giving SCG the second set 25-23 for 2-0.
In the third set, Puerto Rico held a two-point advantage at the first TTO as the crowd cheered on the Caribbean underdogs against the European volleyball aristocrats.
Boskan and Soto were having an interesting head-to-head on the Puerto Rico right. SCG could not find their rhythm, though, and trailed 16-14 at the second TTO. Jose Rivera pushed one over for 17-14, and Soto soared on the left to batter another point past the SCG block, 18-16.
When Victor Rivera extended this lead to 19-16, SCG went off for a TO to regroup and set about saving the third set. Puerto Rico had the momentum, though, and an Esteves block on Boskan for 22-18 sent SCG into another TO. A wild serve from Geric gave Puerto Rico the third frame 25-20.
SCG needed to find some fire in the fourth set or face a potentially embarrassing result, but another fine block by Esteves, this time on Geric, showed it was not going to be easy to reassert their authority. Soto pushed one over a three-man block for 8-5 at the first TTO.
With some acrobatic back-court defence and sharp play at the net to support the one-man demolition crew by the name of Soto, Puerto Rico stayed in front.
Captain Nikola Grbic, who had replaced Veljko Petkovic with SCG down 9-5 in the fourth, seemed to have put the spark into his team again, and they led 16-14 at the second TTO. Vujevic spiked powerfully from both flanks, Geric pounced at the net, and SCG came home 25-23 on a long serve from Rodriguez.
