Azerbaijan suffers second straight defeat at Volleyball Worlds

After taking a two-set lead, Russia conceded the third before their class shone through for a 25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 25-20 victory. On Tuesday, Russia defeated Mexico in three sets.

For the hard-working Azerbaijanis, it was their second successive defeat, having gone down in four sets to China on Tuesday.

Russia started strongly, with giants Ekaterina Gamova and Elena Godina and Maria Borodakova dominating at the net with some fierce spiking that consistently breached the Azerbaijan defence.

The Russians swept to a 16-9 lead as Azerbaijan were reduced to relying too much on star spiker Natalya Mammadova in both attack and defence. Azerbaijan managed to claw back to 20-18 but the Russians maintained their intensity and were never going to give up their lead.

Gamova won the set for the Russians with a fine block that characeterised Russia's superiority at the net throughout the set.

Russia surged to a 3-0 second set lead before the 1.95-metre Mammadova took over, spiking and blocking Azerbaijan to a 8-6 first time-out lead.

The Azerbaijanis made Mammadova a central part of their attack as they maintained their advantage with veteran Yelena Shabovta playing an increasingly important role on the left side of the net.

However, with Russia's three big women Gamova, Godina and Yulia Merkulova giving their team an array of options, the Olympic silver medallists were able to retake the advantage at 16-14.

A cheeky reverse-punch by Borodakova gave Russia a 19-15 lead but Azerbaijan hit back as Mammadova's service ace brought them to within one point at 19-18.

Shabovta's two spikes kept it close at 21-21 but Russia's three-women defensive wall denied Azerbaijan any more points as Borodakova closed out the set with a neat tip into no-man's land.

Azerbaijan led 8-6 in the third set after some great spikes from the influential Shabovta and better defensive work from the middle of the court. A technical foul by Russia allowed Azerbaijan to lead 11-7, their largest advantage of the match.

They extended it to 14-9 thanks to some brilliant defensive work from libero Valeriya Korotenko and by the second time-out, Azerbaijan had a 16-10 buffer.

With Mammadova and Shabovta calling the shots, Azerbaijan eventually sealed the set when the hard-working Oksana Mammadyarova sent down a cross-court spike for Natalia Kulikova to punch out.

Russia went into a 8-5 fourth-set lead as Azerbaijan, probably tired after their third-set efforts, struggled to maintain their potent attacking form in the early stages of the set.

They managed to fightback to within 10-8 with Mammadyarova providing some key spikes but the Russians stretched their lead to 16-12 to take control of the match.

Despite a brief rally to 16-15, Russia were too strong for their former Soviet compatriots, with Shabvota's blocked spike providing the winning point.

The top four teams after a single round-robin advance to the second round in Osaka.

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