Poland celebrates win over Italy at the Olympic Games – Volleyball News
Poland men’s national volleyball team defeated Italian counterparts on Sunday at the Earls Court in London.
In the opening match of the Olympics Men’s Volleyball Tournament, Poland posted 3-1 (21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-14) win over Italy and claimed first victory in the competition.
World No. 3 Poland did not catch a good start in the match and dropped first frame, but still managed to prove its supremacy on the net in the following three sets.
Poland’s Bartosz Kurek was the real hero of the match. He was named the top-scorer of the match as he contributed 18 points in his team’s victory. His teammates, Bartman and Michal Winiarski, also went into double-digits. They added 15 and 13 points, respectively.
On the other hand, Cristian Savani fought for Italy and added team-high 15 points whereas Michal Lasko and Ivan Zaytzev followed him up with 14 and 13 points, in the loss.
In the first set of the match, Poland faced a lot of difficulty in handling the tricky serves and spikes from the Italian players. However, the two sides regularly added points and traded lead. The Polish fans created huge noise, in order to support their
team. In the end, Italy proved to be better and secured opening stanza at 25-21.
Poland dropped the opening set of the match, but came up with heavy strike of volleys in the second set. Long cross-court shots of Poles devastated the rival side. Poland built a lead and cruised past to second-set win with five points, 25-20. The game score
tied at 1-1 at the end of second set.
In the tie breaker third set, Poland gave a good competition to Italy and claimed success. In the next run, fourth set also ended in Poland’s favour and the Polish team celebrated its first win of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“Italy played real well in the first set and then we started to make the adjustments. The team that played better won the match. They served incredibly well in the first set, but it is difficult for anyone to keep serving with that violence and precision,”
said Polish mentor Andrea Anastasi after the match.
The skipper Marcin Mozdzonek also had his say about the match. He stated: “It was a very good evening and we played against one of the best teams in the world. We started a little bit nervous and they served very well and with good technique. From the second
set on, we improved our reception and the setter did his job and we did ours.”
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