Japan had in their star outside hitter duo their main point-scorers against Serbia. While captain Sarina Koga tallied 21 (19 kills, one ace, one block), Arisa Inoue added another 18 (16 kills, one ace, one block). Kotona Hayashi also reached double digits with 12 while Mayu Ishikawa made her VNL debut, coming off the bench to score four points in the tie-breaker.
The Serbian block was a major factor in the duel, with the Europeans scoring 14 points, including the game-winner, to Japan’s six. The Asians led all three other statistical categories, getting more points from kills (66 to 58), aces (six to four) and opponent errors (22 to 21).
**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**
In the first match of the VNL 2023 in Brasilia, earlier on Tuesday, rookies Croatia won their first set in the tournament, but couldn’t stop the unbeaten United States, who came back to secure a 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-15) victory. The Americans are one of the three undefeated teams in the VNL 2023 and rank third in the standings, behind China and Poland, while Croatia are 15th.