Improving our serving and blocking was key - Yevgeniya Startseva

Russia got off to a solid start at the 2021 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations, shutting out Germany in straight sets.

Here's the reaction after the game, from the virtual Mixed Zone:

Jennifer Janiska (Germany): "We started the two first sets aggressively and led until 20-20, but could keep it up. We are a young team and we lost a little bit of control at crunch time. We have to improve this for the next games, because we play against the Netherlands and Belgium and this will be very tough. So we have a chance to improve everything, but it's of course really nice to be back on the court and play the Volleyball Nations League. We enjoy it, but we want go for the points in our next games."

Yevgeniya Startseva (Russia): "It was very important to start this national team season with a win, because it has been a long time without international matches. I can congratulate my teammates, because I am very satisfied with the level of volleyball which we have shown today. At the beginning we made a few mistakes, but after this we managed to eliminate them and we improved our service and block and that was key to our victory."