Italy beats Puerto Rico in second round of 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship
The Girls’ national youth volleyball team of Italy posted a 3-1 (25-15, 16-25, 25-17, and 25-14) victory over Puerto Rico on Wednesday, August 17. It was the first meeting of the two teams in the tournament. Italy lost two matches in the previous round but
managed to give out a better performance in the second. They opened the second round with victory over Algeria and continued with success in the next match against Puerto Rico. Italy collected six points for winning two matches in a row and now the team of
head coach Luca Pieragnoli has qualified to compete for the 9 to 12 positions.
Elena Perinelli of Italy was instrumental to her team’s success in the match as she delivered unstoppable shots from all angles and helped Italy lead. She clipped 17 points on 16 attacks and one serve. Puerto Rico’s top-scorer was Marie Victoria who added
10 points.
Italy put pressure on the opposite side with powerful serves and amazing long court shots in the early few minutes. They picked up a lead of 8-4 via convincing attacks by Elena Perinelli. Puerto Ricans resisted the heavy strike of volleys by Italy couldn’t
stop the score. The Italian score kept rising and scoreboard showed a margin of six points at the second technical break. As the game progressed, the difference of points further stretched out and Italy sealed the first-set win at 25-15.
Ironically, Italy could not keep up the same momentum in the next set. They committed too many unforced mistakes and created a perfect opportunity for Puerto Rico to take the game away from them. Marie Victoria played well and enabled Puerto Rico to win
the second set at (25-16).
The third set was a close fight as both sides displayed better play. Italy got the edge and pushed Puerto Rico behind. Hits by the Italian Perinelli led her team to success in the third set. Fourth set had the similar feel and a tie at 5-all was a clear
sign of tension between two teams. However, Puerto Rico failed to sustain the pressure and received 14-25 defeat in the fourth set. Italy won the match and grabbed three points.
Luca Pieragnoli was the centre of attention as the match ended. His vision and game plan perfectly worked for his team and proved to be very fruitful. In his post-match comments, he thanked the Puerto Rican team. He was happy about his team’s performance
in the second round but he couldn’t hide the hard feelings of losing a spot in the top-8. He stated: "We wished to be in the first 8 of the tournament but now we are at the 9th line. We had high hopes for this tournament but it became a disappointment for
us. Of course this result affected the passion of our players."
Captain of Puerto Rican team, Daly Santana, shared her thoughts after the match and said, "I want to congratulate the Italy too. They never gave up during the game. They played really well. We managed to make our passes very good. Because of our high spirit
we managed to get one set but we couldn't get the sets for the match" On the other hand, the captain of the Italian side, Elena Perinelli, expressed delight about winning the match and she complimented Puerto Ricans for having great stamina in the match.
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