Italy gets a 3-1 win against Dominican Republic: FIVB Volleyball Women's Junior World Championship
A Pool E match of the FIVB Junoir World Championship was played Thursday, 28th July at the Eduardo Dibos Gymnasium between the Dominican Republic and Italy. Four long and grueling sets produced a win for Italy at 3-1.
The first set of the match was an all out slugfest. However, the Italians were successful in bagging the opening set but faced a harder time against the Dominican Republic in the second set of the game. The third set saw the Dominican Republic come to life
as they grabbed a win but could not secure a fourth one. Therefore, the Italians celebrated a win at the following final set scores: 25-19, 25-22, 20-25 and 25-20.
The Italian coach, Marco Mencarelli, made the following comments at the press conference that was held after the match: "It is a big step forward. By making changes, we played a good game against a difficult team because of their great offensive level. The
changes were very important to regain the control of the game."
On the other hand, the Dominican Republic coach, Wagner Pacheco, expressed himself in the following words: "It is difficult to play against players as tall as Italians with a very good blocking. The setter was not playing well. We made mistakes in key moments
of the game."
The start of the first set of the game went well for the Italians as they were able to utilise the errors of the Dominican Republic team and build a lead. As the teams approached the first technical time out, the Italians were leading by 8-5. But the Dominican
Republic was not about to give up just yet and got the match to a tie at 11-11. The second technical time out favoured the Dominican Republic who had the lead at 16-14. Italy was able to push past ahead and take the lead again but the Dominican Republic equalised
the score at 19-19. Within 22 minutes, the Italians had bagged the opening set of the game at 25-19.
Capitalising on the momentum generated by winning the opening set of the game infused the Italians with confidence and they were able to take the lead at 8-2. Largely due to errors made by the Italians, the Dominican Republic side of the score board kept
on ticking. However, it was the Italian squad that took the second set at 25-22.
The Dominican Republic came out strong in the third set of the game and matched the play of their opponents which took them all the way to a win at 25-20. The start of the fourth set saw the Italians a bit out of sync but they gathered themselves together
in time to secure a win at 25-20.
The player that stood prominent on the Italian side was Valentina Diouf as she smashed 27 points during the match.
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