LECCE– An increasingly confident and convincing Italy Under 22 Women’s team overwhelms Ukraine 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-14) and, to the delight of the fans at the Palazzetto dello Sport “San Giuseppe da Copertino”, achieves qualification for the semi-finals of the European Championship in the category. Gardini and were good in all the fundamentals and were able to manage the match in complete safety, ensuring the precious passage to the next round. The top scorers of the match were Eckl and Gardini with 10 points.
In the match against Ukraine, the Italian coach Marco Mencarelli confirmed the team that yesterday in the opening match of the continental tournament beat Lithuania, with the diagonal diagonal Eze-Adelusi, the middle blockers Costantini-Eckl, the spikers Gardini-Nervini, and the libero Ribechi. The Ukrainian coach Romanovych lined up Starostenko, Dziuba, Ratii, Kaplaska, Huseinova, Zharkova and Vasylieva libero.
The start of the first set saw Ribechi and her teammates start a bit tense and make some mistakes. Ukraine, on the other hand, was incisive and found good solutions in attack, which allowed them to stay in the wake of Italy (9-8).
As the action progressed, however, the value of the Italians came out and Italy broke away from their opponents (16-11). In the end, Mencarelli’s girls literally dominated the set, which ended with a score of (25-16) at the second set ball thanks to Adelusi’s winning attack.
In the second set the Italians needed few actions to take a firm lead (8-3), Eze in the control room fed her attackers well (12-5) and the advantage grew. In the final, coach Mencarelli also brought on Bartolucci and Acciarri and the partial went smoothly without problems (25-15).
The script of the match did not change in the third set, Mencarelli’s Italians immediately pushed hard (4-0) and Ukraine slipped back. The Italians in the following phases did not stop (16-7) and closed the accounts on (25-14) with the point of Eckl, deserving access to the semifinals of the European Under 22 Championship.
This evening too, the Palasport in Lecce was graced by a beautiful crowd (almost 1000 spectators in the stands) who supported the young Italian team throughout the match.
Italy U22 will return to the field tomorrow, July 3, again at 9 pm, against Turkey for the last match of the pool stage, which will decide first place in the group.
Le parole di Chidera Eze-
“Today’s match against Ukraine was a good one where we were able to express our game at its best. Tomorrow we’ll be back on the field against Turkey and it will certainly be a more difficult match. They are a team that plays good volleyball, but we are Italy and we will take to the field with the same determination that we showed today. This evening the atmosphere here in Lecce was also fantastic, I knew about the warmth of the Apulian public and I am very happy about that. This public was really the seventh player in the team. I take this opportunity to make an appeal and send everyone here to the sports hall to watch Italy’s matches.
Katya Eckl’s words-
“Today went very well. We started very aggressively and we were good in all the fundamentals; this made the difference, as the final result shows. However, I think we still have room for improvement in attack and that we need to find more consistency in serving. Tomorrow will certainly be tough against a strong team like Turkey. We both won two games and we can’t wait to compete with them.”
The scoreboard-
ITALY-UKRAINE 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-14)
ITALY: Nervini 8, Eckl 10, Eze 3, Gardini 10, Costantini 6, Adelusi 8, Ribechi (L). Adriano 2, Giuliani, Valoppi, Bartolucci, Marconato, Acciarri, Ne Bellia. Coach Mencarelli
UKRAINA: Huseinova 2, Dziuba 9, Starostenko 1, Zharkova 6, Kaplanska M 5, Ratii 3, Vasylieva (L), Herasymcuk, Kucher 5, Nakoskina, Kaplanska, Holod. Ne Dzendzelovska, Propova. All. Romanovych
Set duration: 22′, 21,’ 21′ : Total: 64′
REFEREES: Widlarz (ENG), Kalin (SUI)
Italia: 8a , 8 bs, 7 mv, 13 et
Ukraine: 7 a, 12 bs, 1 mv, 28 et
THE CALENDAR AND RESULTS OF THE EVENT-
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
Türkiye – Latvia 3-0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-11)
Ukraine – Italy 0-3 (16-25, 14-25, 14-25)
03/07
18:00 Latvia – Ukraine
9:00 pm Türkiye – Italy
THE RANKING-
Italy 2V (6p.), Turkey (2V 6p.), Latvia 0V (0p.), Ukraine 0V (0p)
Pool II (Copertino)
01/07
Serbia – Polonia 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 29-27)
Portugal – Czech Republic 1-3 (23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 14-25)
02/07
Poland – Czech Republic 3-0 (25-17, 26-16, 25-21)
Serbia – Portugal 3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-19)
03/07
18:00 Czech Republic – Serbia
9.00pm Poland – Portugal
THE RANKING–
Serbia 2V (6p.), Poland 1V (3p.), Czech Republic 1V (3p.), Portugal 0V (0p.)
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
