BLAJ (ROMANIA)- Italy scores an encore. Second victory for the Under 18 women’s national team at the European Championships in the category currently underway in Blaj (Romania). After yesterday’s success in their debut against Croatia, the Azzurrine led by Michele Fanni confirmed their form today thanks to the 3-1 (25-21, 25-14, 19-25, 25-22) inflicted on Holland in their second outing in Pool I; the Dutch team is coming off a tie-break victory (17-25, 27-25, 25-16, 15-25, 15-8) in their debut match yesterday against Serbia. The top scorer of the match was the Italian Veronica Quero with sixteen points scored, followed by Caterina Peroni and Ludovica Tosini, respectively with fifteen and thirteen points. Tomorrow at 11:00 (Italian time) Italy will face Spain.
Good start to the match for the Azzurrine; first set that saw Bonafede and teammates gain a good lead going from 8-3 to 11-3; the Italian pressing did not stop and Italy took the lead to 17-11, at which point coach Fanni’s athletes suffered the comeback of their rivals. The Dutch in fact mended the gap, taking it to -1 at 21-20. Well done to Italy for recomposing themselves and hitting the 25-21 at the end of the set.
Second half of the game clearly dominated by the Italians. At the beginning of the set, Italy immediately ran away on 8-4 and 16-10 and unlike the first half of the game when the Italians suffered the opponent’s comeback, this time the script changed; strong in the advantage acquired, the Italian team was good at keeping Holland at bay (20-10, 22-11), managing to close the set at 25-14 in the end, thus taking the overall lead to 2-0. Third half of the game that started under the blows of the Dutch. As expected, coach Munter’s athletes, down 2-0, came back on the field determined and with clear ideas, finding the +5 at half time on 9-14. Always in the lead and thanks to some Italian lapses, the orange team kept the Italians at bay going from 17-21 to 19-25 at the end of the set. Italy-Holland 2-1.
Very balanced fourth set; the Italians dominated the start of the set, finding 5-0 and 7-3, before being caught up by Holland at 11-11. The battle under the net continued until 16-16, when Italy managed to find the break (19-16) that allowed them, without much difficulty, to close the match 25-22 and thus obtain their second consecutive victory in the continental tournament of their category.
The scoreboard-
ITALY-HOLLAND 3-1 (25-21, 25-14, 19-25, 25-22)
ITALY: Tosini 13, Sari 8, Peroni 15, Caruso, Quero 16, Fratangelo 3, Bonafede (L). Spaziano, Susio 10, Moroni. B/N Aimaretti, Cornelli, Zanella, Stagnaro. Coach Fanni.
OLANDA: Meijer 9, Evers 9, Van Dijk 2, Van Lier 12, Wiegerinck 1. All.
Set duration: 30′, 23′ 26′, 30′.
ARBITRI Mitrovic (MNE), Batkai-Kotona (HUN)
Italia: 8 a, 9 bs, 6 mv, 30 et.
Olanda: 4 a, 7 bs, 9 mv, 28 et.
POOL I | CALENDAR and RESULTS
1st JULY
Italia-Croatia 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 26-28, 25-20, 15-10)
Slovenia-Belgium 0-3 (22-25, 23-25, 16-25)
Spain-Romania 3-0 (31-29, 25-19, 25-14)
Netherlands-Serbia 3-2 (17-25, 27-25, 25-16, 15-25, 15-8)
2ND OF JULY
Spain-Belgium 2-3 (26-24, 20-25, 25-21, 20-25, 12-15)
Italia-Wanda 3-1 (25-21, 25-14, 19-25, 25-22)
Ore 16.30: Romania-Serbia
7pm: Croatia-Slovenia
JULY 3
11am, Spain-Italia
1.30pm: Netherlands-Croatia
Ore 16.30: Slovenia-Romania
7pm: Belgium-Serbia
JULY 5
Ore 11: Serbia-Slovenia
Ore 13.30, Italia-Belgium
4:30 p.m.: Romania-Netherlands
7pm: Croatia-Spain
JULY 6
11am: Netherlands-Belgium
1.30pm: Spain-Slovenia
4.30pm: Croatia-Romania
Ore 19, Italia-Serbia
JULY 8
11am: Netherlands-Spain
1.30pm: Serbia-Croatia
4.30pm: Belgium-Romania
7pm, Slovenia-Italia
JULY 9
11am: Belgium-Croatia
1.30pm: Serbia-Spain
4:30 p.m., Romania-Italia
7pm: Slovenia-Netherlands
JULY 12
SEMIFINALS
1st Pool I-2nd Pool II
1st Pool II-2nd Pool I
JULY 13
FINAL
3pm, 3rd/4th place final
6pm, 1st/2nd place final
*Italian game times
