15/05/2015 20:26
Italy and Russia extend winning streak, go for ‘grand finale’ on Saturday
2015 FIVB U20 Women Volleyball World Championship - European Qualification
Anapa, Russia, May 15, 2015. On Saturday hosts Russia and Italy will be crossing their ways in a match whose eventual winner will make it to this year’s FIVB Volleyball Women’s U20 World Championship in Puerto Rico. After edging Poland on the opening day of the tournament being held at Voleygrad in Anapa, Italy claimed on Friday their second victory in Pool H to stay in the race for that much desired spot to represent Europe at this year’s World Championship. The ‘Azzurrine’ edged the silver medallists from last year’s European Championship, Slovenia, by 3:1 (17-25, 26-24, 25-22, 25-19) and on Saturday will play hosts Russia for first place in the group after the home heroines came back strong from losing the opening set of their game with Poland to record a 3:1 (19-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-15) win as well.
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Italy vs. Slovenia 3:1 (17-25, 26-24, 25-22, 25-19)
Slovenia caught an excellent start in their live-or-die match with Italy as their block worked just fine to contribute to a 16:9 lead at the second technical time-out. The Italians, on the other hand, made a number of mistakes, especially in attack, and Slovenia quite naturally brought the first set to an end at 25-17.
The course of the game changed in the second set where Italy set the pace with Slovenia trying to stay in the race. Italy could especially rely on the contribution of yesterday’s best scorer Anna Danesi and with some aces they widened their lead to 14:9. However, Slovenia fought back and after scoring five consecutive points, they almost levelled the score at 15:14. The final section of this set was very dramatic with the Italians breaking away first but Slovenia played with resilience to restore the balance at 24 all. Still Italy scored the last two points for the final 26-24 and this way the ‘Azzurrine’ restored the equality in the match.
The score remained tight in the early stages of the third set up to 10 all with Italy then edging ahead by three points at the second technical time-out. Though Slovenia fought bravely through to the end, Italy had the upper hand at 25-22.
The fourth set was another close affair up to 16 all. However, Italy scored three in a row and could set their sight on the finish line; Slovenia’s libero Maja Pahor suffered an injury and this proved to be the last blow to her team’s hopes to go for the tie-break. The role of the libero was taken over by Katja Mihalinec but Italy cruised safely through to a 25-19 set win to finish it off.
“We are very happy we could win, but are not happy with the way we played in the third set. We hope that we will be playing better tomorrow and without making as many mistakes as we made today,” commented Sofia D’Odorico.
“We did not play that well and throughout this match we made many mistakes,” said her coach Luca Cristofani. “Slovenia played a good game, they made only very few mistakes and this was a problem for us. You should not forget that last year they won silver at the European Championship and so this speaks for their value. They also play some powerful Volleyball and you need to adjust to it.”
Poland vs. Russia 1:3 (25-19, 21-25, 24-26, 15-25)
Russia started their second match of this home tournament with the right pace and their solid performance in reception paved the way for a 12:9 lead in the opening set. However, after that the home side seemed to struggle and Poland levelled the score at 13 all. Tatiana Iurinskaia made another mistake in reception and at this stage Poland’s lead was widened to five points. The visitors did not dissipate this opportunity and after moving the score to 20:15, they exploited Russia’s problems in defence to score another few points and bring the first set home at 25-19.
The second set followed a similar plot with Russia opening with a 3:0 lead but their advantage was cancelled once Poland tied the score at 9 all. A mistake by Poland’s opposite Malwina Smarzek opened the way for Russia’s 16:13 lead at the second technical time-out but the hosts’ advantage was reduced down to one point at 17:16. After a tie at 21, Russia’s players looked very determined to avoid any more surprises and with four straight points they cashed the set at 25-21.
After that, things went easier for the home side even though their comfortable lead was always questioned by a series of mistakes; Poland scored five in a row to stay in the race and keep their deficit down to four points at the second technical time-out of set 3. Though Poland fought hard and the score was levelled at 24 all after Angelina Sperskaite sent the ball off the bounds, Russia stayed cool and finished it off at 26-24. At this stage, the fate of the match was written with Russia easily controlling set 4 from start to end (25-15) to claim their second victory in Anapa and shape up a much anticipated ‘big finale’ with Italy.
Russia’s coach Petr Kobrin said: “Poland is historically a tough rival and opponent for us. It is always difficult to play with them but I am glad that we could control our nerves especially since my players, for some reason, looked very nervous at the beginning of the match and this way lost the first set. We had to calm them down and we used some substitutions to get back on track. We really wanted to win and this somehow did not turn out to be an advantage or to have a good impact on the match. We changed half of our starting six after the first set and this way we found the right solutions and balance.”
Svetlana Serbina, player of Russia, said: “Today’s my birthday and so my team presented me with a special gift, a victory! I will remember this day forever! Today, of course, it was tough and we felt the pressure, but in the second set we found our way into the game and we executed the plans we had agreed upon with our coach.”
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