Assistant coach of the Indonesian U-21 men's national volleyball team, Nur Widayanto, said that the frequent failure of the first ball reception was a factor in the Garuda Muda's defeat to Ukraine U-21.
In the third match of Pool D at the Jiangmen Sports Center, Jiangmen, China, Saturday, Garuda Muda lost 18-25, 28-26, 22-25, 25-23, 7-15 to Ukraine.
"The first ball reception in the fifth set was indeed reduced, so the attack couldn't break through the opposing blockers. As a result, the focus was solely on the open spiker and outside hitter, making their blockers more organized. However, the students' blocking and defense were quite good," said Nur Widayanto on the PBVSI website.
Receiving the first ball to build an attack is still a big challenge for Anwar Sadat's team.
Another obstacle experienced by the Red and White team was that the block was often penetrated, where Indonesia only obtained ten points from block attempts, losing five points to Ukraine in this set.
Indonesia's attack was often misread by its opponents. Garuda Muda scored 59 points from attack, far behind Ukraine's 72 points.
