Lozo leads Serbia to an incredible comeback against Thailand

Serbia were involved in a five-set battle for the second-straight day on the Volleyball Nations League 2023 Week 2 in Brasilia, Brazil, but on Friday the reigning world champions were on the winning side of it.

After dropping the match to hosts Brazil on Thursday, the Europeans found the energy and the strength to come back after losing the first two sets to Thailand and walked away from the Nilson Nelson Stadium with a 3-2 (24-26, 22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 16-14) victory.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

Serbia’s second victory in the VNL 2023 helped the world champions earn one spot in the standings, going from 12^th to 11^th place, and get closer to the qualification zone for the VNL Finals, which includes the best eight teams in the Preliminary Phase.

It took the Europeans a lot of effort to complete their comeback against Thailand. Besides turning the tables after losing the first two sets, the Serbians also saw themselves trailing 14-11 in the tie-breaker before they scored five points in a row to win the match.

Outside hitter Sara Lozo was a key piece in the Serbian comeback. The 26-year-old world champion started the match on the bench, but was brought in during the first set and responded with a solid 22-point (18 kills, one ace, three blocks) performance.

“I’m very proud of the team for the way we reacted to such a tough loss to Brazil,” Lozo commented. “Playing Thailand is always a challenge because they’re so good on defense and it takes us a lot of effort to score points. We want to qualify for the VNL Finals and we knew we needed to win this match. After the second set, I think that we realized that we’d have to play much better if we wanted to win and I’m happy we did it. That’s who we are, we fight for our goals and we never give up.”

Opposite and team captain Ana Bjelica, who tallied 18 points (16 kills, two blocks), and outside hitter Bianka Busa, who added another 15 (13 kills, one ace, one block), also played important roles in the Serbian comeback.

Thailand, who are in tenth place in the standings, counted on 21 points (18 kills, one ace, two blocks) from outside hitter Chatchu-On Moksri and 20 (all in kills) from opposite Pimpichaya Kokram during the match.

Despite the tight score, the Europeans were more effective than the Asians in every skill, getting more points from kills (75 to 60), blocks (13 to 12), aces (three to two) and opponent errors (21 to 20).

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

The duel concluded Friday’s match schedule in Brasilia. Three more encounters will be held on Saturday – Brazil vs. Germany, at 14:00 local time (17:00 UTC), Japan vs. USA at 17:30 local time (20:30 UTC) and Serbia vs. Croatia at 21:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Sunday).

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