PLEASURE– The Italian women’s national team replicated yesterday’s result, beating Sweden again 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-20) in front of 2358 spectators at the PalaBancaSport, for a total income of 35,000 euros.
Tonight’s event represented the last commitment before leaving for Antalya (Turkey), scheduled for Sunday 12 May. The Italians, who will compete for Olympic qualification in the international tournament, will find on their way in the first week: Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey.
After Novara, this evening too Julio Velasco used the friendly match to use almost all the players at his disposal, especially those who had found less space yesterday.
As the starting line-up, the Italian coach deployed Cambi as setter, Antropova as opposite, Nervini and Omoruyi as spikers, L. Nwakalor and Bonifacio as center backs, Fersino as libero.
In the first set, Italy took a few rallies to take the lead (9-5), immediately finding a good rhythm in attack (13-8). Antropova and her teammates easily controlled the partial (22-15) and prevailed (25-17). Upon returning to the field, the Italian national team presented itself with the diagonal formed by the couple Francesca Bosio-Syliva Nwakalor and Ilaria Spirito libero. Unlike the previous partial, Velasco’s girls found it more difficult to extend the lead (12-8) and Sweden managed to keep in touch (14-11). For long stretches Italy
they defended a good margin over their opponents, but in the final everything came back into question (23-22). A good attack by Piva allowed the Italians to get to (24-22), then a Swedish error closed the issue at (25-22).
Bonifacio and her teammates immediately tried to lead the third set (10-6) and the Swedes responded (14-9). The Italian national team rejected every attempt (18-14) and took home the match without any risk (25-20).
At the end of the match the two teams played another set, which the Italians won (25-16).
The words of Sara Bonifacio–
« With these two races we had the opportunity to test all the work done in the gym in recent weeks. Two victories have arrived which give us even more energy ahead of the Volleyball Nations League. We are very excited and ambitious, we know that the VNL will qualify for the Olympics and at the moment that is our big goal. We can still grow a lot, obviously, we’re not even full yet. What we have been able to put in place represents a positive start from which to build
to find our game ».
The words of Camilla Mingardi–
« I’m really very happy with these two clear victories, we needed to try a few things in view of the first stage of the VNL. We all managed to play, finding some space ahead of the first stage in Türkiye. Some girls worked for 5 weeks, while others joined college later, but I think there is already a good understanding. There is a great desire to work in the group, we all have the same goal in mind ».
THE SCORESHEET-
ITALY – SWEDEN 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-20)
ITALY: Cambi 2, Omoruyi 9, L. Nwakalor 4, Antropova 4, Nervini 6, Bonifacio 10. Fersino (L). Piva 2, Mingardi 4, Bosio 1, Degradi 5, Akrari 1. Ne: Sartori and Bosetti. All. Velasco
SWEDEN: Haak A. 9, Nilsson 8, Lindberg 10, Lazic 10, Andersson 5, Julevik 3. Andersson N (L). Malm, Gustafsson, Brink. Ne: Van Leusen, Lindberg P., Haak A., Broberg. All. Bregoli
REFEREES: Cerra and Stellato
Set Duration: 22′, 19′, 27′. Total: 69′
Italy: 2 y, 6 ls, 6 m, 18 et.
Sweden: 3 a, 11 sc, 6 m, 25et.
