LECCE- Winning and convincing debut for the National Under 22 Women’s Teamwho beat Latvia 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-15) at the Palazzetto dello Sport “San Giuseppe da Copertino”, gaining their first victory in Pool I of the European Championships in the category. Marco Mencarelli’s girls immediately showed good volleyball, highlighting already in the first set the technical and organizational difference between them and their peers from Latvia.
Ribechi and her teammates immediately appeared focused and, after an initial phase of study, they began to grind out points. Latvia is certainly not one of the most insidious opponents, but it was important to start the tournament in the best possible way and with a full victory. For this match, the Italian coach relied on the sextet composed of the diagonal Eze-Adelusi, the middle blockers Costantini-Eckl, the spikers Gardini-Nervini, and the libero Ribechi. The Italian coach Daniele Capriotti of Latvia, instead, chose the sextet composed of Struka, Cepurite, Struka, Sosinovica, Vagele, Pridatko and the libero Grundmane.
The first set immediately took the way of Italy, while Capriotti’s Latvian team lost ground (8-3). The Azzurrine continued to hold the ball of the day and the Latvians, despite an attempt to recover in the central phase of the set, were unable to keep up the high pace put on the field by Ribechi and her teammates (16-11). In the end, Italy was good at closing the set in 21 minutes thanks to a winning attack by Beatrice Gardini.
In the second set the script did not change, Mencarelli’s girls immediately pushed on the accelerator (6-2) and Latvia remained behind. The Italians, vice world champions U21, managed the considerable advantage in the best way.
Mister Capriotti tried to give his team a jolt with a flurry of changes. Italy, however, continued to be orderly and flawless, closing with a score of (25-14) thanks to Eze’s winning point.
In the third set Bartolucci and Adriano also entered, and the Italian girls continued to give the impression of commanding the game and managing the advantage (16-11). However, Latvia gained courage as the action went by and showed some good things. Point after point, however, Italy resumed its march and closed the set and match without too many problems (25-15)
Tomorrow the Under 22 national team will be back on the field at 9:00 pm to face Ukraine in the second match of this continental tournament, who were beaten 3-0 by Turkey in today’s first match played at the Lecce sports hall.
The words of the coach Marco Mencarelli-
« Great debut today against Latvia. I’m happy because very often, when we play against teams that don’t put up much resistance, we settle down. Today, however, no. I’m very satisfied with how the girls interpreted the game and the final score gap proves it. At this moment, the pact we have made between staff and athletes is to look closely at what we do and find, game after game, that little something extra. We have always put this dogma at the center even with previous youth national teams, because we believe that it is very important to be able to put in one more piece compared to the day before. Usually, this attitude pays off. Tomorrow we will play against Ukraine, a team we know little about. However, we have the opportunity to see the preferences of their attackers and these will be the indications we will give to our girls. We will have to improve in serving, because we know how to do much better than we did today, and we will also have to be good at making a few more blocks.
The words of Anna Adelusi-
« I am happy for this positive debut in a European Championship at home. At the beginning we were a bit tense, but then we came out. I am sure that we will have the opportunity to grow match after match during this tournament. I think that every team has its own characteristics and every game is different. As I said, we have to take one step at a time and improve more and more. Today’s game was very useful to get into the rhythm. Tomorrow against Ukraine we will have to impose our game right away and start at 100%, without adapting to their rhythm. This evening the Lecce public made itself heard and I invite you to come and see us tomorrow too.”
The scoreboard-
ITALY-LATVIA 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-15)
ITALY: Nervini 12, Eckl 9, Eze 4, Gardini 10, Costantini 7, Adelusi 8, Ribechi (L). Adriano 4, Giuliani 1, Bartolucci 1, NeValoppi, Marconato, Acciarri, Bellia. Coach Mencarelli.
LATVIA: Sosinovica 2, Struka K. 5, Vagele, Pridatko 7, Cepurite 1, Struka K. 4, Grundmane (L). Celnova 2, Stolca, Valere, Maruze-Mago, Rita 6. NeLeskinovica. Coach Cariotti
Set duration: 21′, 20′, 23′ Total: 64′
REFEREES: Apanowicz (GER), Gjoka (ALB).
Italia: 10 a, 8 b, 9 mv, 13 et.
Latvia: 6 a, 9 bs, mv, 19 et.
RESULTS AND CALENDAR-
Pool I (Lecce)
01/07
Ukraine – Türkiye 0-3 (21-25, 13-25, 18-25)
Italy – Latvia 3-0 (25-14, 25-12-25-15)
02/07
18:00 Türkiye – Latvia
9:00 pm Ukraine – Italy
03/07
18:00 Latvia – Ukraine
9:00 pm Türkiye – Italy
Pool II (Copertino)
01/07
Serbia – Polonia 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 29-27)
Portugal – Czech Republic
02/07
18:00 Poland – Czech Republic
9:00 pm Serbia – Portugal
03/07
18:00 Czech Republic – Serbia
9.00pm Poland – Portugal
Semi-finals 1st-4th place (Lecce)
5/7 ore 18, 1st Pool I – 2st Pool II
5/7 ore 21, 1st Pool II – 2st Pool I
Finals (Lecce)
6/7 5.30pm, 3rd-4th place
6/7 9pm, 1st-2nd place
