Former volleyball star Valentina Fiorin praises Italy's efforts at FIVB World Cup
Former Italian national team member and star volleyball player, Valentina Fiorin, recently expressed her thoughts about Italy’s performance at the 2011 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup. The women’s premier volleyball competition just had an amazing run from November 4-18 in Japan and the Italian squad got a hold of the title trophy. Moreover, the world’s best volleyball athletes showed up on the scene and amazed the fans with their mesmerizing tactics.
Fiorin praised the exceptional performance of the Italian team and disclosed her thoughts in the following manner: “For some reason, I think that very few people believed that they could do it after placing fourth in the European Championship – but it happened. The team is quite changed and they were able to find a good balance and infused a lot of enthusiasm in their game.”
Speaking of the individual player performances, she especially referred to Carolina Constagrande and Paola Croce, who played an instrumental role in leading Italy to success. She called Costagrande as the perfect substitution of former Italian captain Francesca Piccinini. In Fiorin’s view, Costagrande carries all attributes and qualities of a great volleyball player.
Costagrande really deserved to be praised in such a way as she did everything from passing, spiking from all positions, digging and blocking in the tournament. She’s a complete player – positive and most of all gave her 100 per cent in every match. She proved her ability in every aspect of the game and received positive remarks from everyone.
On the other hand, Paola Croce’s wonderful defence caught the attention of Fiorin. The former Italian star said: “Crocehas been significant in Italy’s matches. It was a good that she was called in again by the national team after several years. I think she was ready and had good motivation. But all the girls have been great.
Finally Fiorin concluded that Italy’s player combination and game strategy was excellent. They formed good sets and found the right formula to push every one behind and to win the World Cup.
Valentina Fiorin comes with wealth of experience as she competed for Italy at the FIVB World Cup in 2003, the FIVB World Championships in 2007, and four editions of the FIVB World Grand Prix (2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007). She also represented Italy at the European Championship in 2007.
She received several awards including Best Spiker and Best Receiver when she played for Italy. Considering the amount of time she has spent on centre court and honours that she received, it was great to have her say about Italy’s performance in the World Cup.
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