OK Partizan - OK Novi Pazar 3:0

We’ve been undefeated for the 12th match now. It’s something absolutely unique in the volleyball team’s history.
Novi Pazar tried to keep things under control, at the beginning they were on the lead, being ahead of us with 2-3 points. The truth is, they couldn’t keep things in hand and with numerous faults and mistakes they lost the first set. The result was 25:22.
Then it was time for us to show who’s the boss. Mrdak turned on his usual crushing form (he scored 21 ponts on this match) joined by the Mijailović-Kostić duo and we quickly made our way to 14:9.

Match action: Mijailović smashes while Novi Pazar players try to block him

(photo: zurnal.rs)

We were ahead to 23:18 when the guest team reduced the difference with 2 points. Then came Mrdak again and mercilessly crashed the lines of Novi Pazar. We won the second game to 25:21.
Guests picked themselves together for the last set and made it to 0:3. But Partizan started up the Steam Roller, at 18:9 the only question left was to win with 10 points or keep ourselves to the one-digit difference. The end result of the set was 25:15, and Partizan is leading the league table after 12 played games with 33 points, having 6 points of advantage ahead of Crvena Zvezda, that stays at the second place.

OK Crvena Zvezda - OK Partizan 1:3

Victory at the eternal derby, still being undefeated in the championship.
All these after the first match of 2015.
Do we need more?...
On the top of it all, Nikola Mijailović returned at this match after more than 6 months.
We walked out to the ground and ate the reds. We made it to 7:14 in the first set, then the opponent picked themselves together and reduced the difference to 18:20 - but we were still on the lead. What is more, with Jokanović in command we pushed it up to 24:19, then finally Nemanja Jokanović (mentioned earlier) brought the match-point and we won the first game to 25:19. (0:1)
In the beginning of the second we made it to 4:9, but Zvezda could somehow find the pace and even turned the standing to 20:19. Their advantage didn’t last long, Lopar switched the standing back to our side (21:22) and we eventually won the second game to 25:22. (0:2)
For the third the red team again picked themselves together and took the lead to 8:3. This 8:3 later became 12:6 and they won the set to 25:19. (1:2)
They got a chance from us to find their breath.
You get what I mean. At this set we showed how NOT to play volleyball.
So, in the fourth we could show how to actually play it.
Because we took a deep breath and the standing was 5:16. Our advantage was three times ahead of the red team’s (and even more with one point). There was no return. We broke the rest of the red team’s self-esteem, winning the set to 10:25 as well as winning the eternal derby to 1:3.

I’d like to take the opportunity here to suggest RTS to make RTS 2 available at their site beside RTS Satelit. Thank you. 

OK Crvena Zvezda: Okolić (4), Jevtić (libero), Lukić, Stefanović, Stoilović (8), Gmitrović, Koprivica (14), Milutinović (6), Martinović (4), Kecman, Blagojević (16), Buculjević (1)
Head coach: Dragan Kobiljski

OK Partizan: Ivković, Lopar (11), Kostić (1), Mulćan, Mrdak (20), Majstorović, Rajković (libero), Jokanović (1), Mijailović (17),  P. Nikolić (4), M. Nikolić (19), Popović
Head coach: Vladimir Vasović

Championship standings after Round 11:
1. Partizan 30 points
2. Crvena Zvezda 27 points
3. Vojvodina 23 points*
4. Novi Pazar 17 points*
5. Spartak Ljig 12 points*
6. Ribnica 11 points*
7. Inđija 11 points*
8. Đerdap 9 points
9. Mladi Radnik 8 points*
10. Radnički 8 points

Teams marked with * played 10 matches so far.