Russia ends the first round of the Olympic Tournament without any loss – Volleyball News
Russian women’s volleyball team concluded the preliminary round of the Olympics tournament in a great manner and completed a winning streak of five matches, 5-0.
In the last fixture of the Olympic Prelims, Team Russia was challenged by archrival Italy. Russians proved to be better and stamped 3-2 (26-28, 25-19, 22-25, 25-16, 15-11) win over the Italians. Russia maintained its dominance on the net and finished the
first round without any loss. Italy was also unbeaten in the competition until it came into contest with Russia and suffered the first loss. Russia firmly held the top slot in Pool A, while Italy finished second. However, both teams earned berths in the next
stage of the tournament.
Russia's Nataliya Goncharova and Ekaterina Gamova showed a great consistency in attack and defence. They played amazingly well and settled for 33 and 31 points, respectively. On Italy’s side, Simona Gioli emerged as the top-scorer with a total of 21 points.
Three other Italian players went into double-figure score, but overall the team dropped the decision.
First set of the match was a heated competition. The scoring remained tight and spectators saw an exchange of long rallies. Set-1 completed its length in 29 minutes and Italy bagged success. Russia got back on track with second set win, but Italy retook
lead with third-set victory. The see-saw battle continued and fourth set ended with a dead-lock of 2-2.
In the decisive final set, Russia managed to down the opposite side and became the giant winner of the five-set thriller.
“I think that I had some faults and didn’t play very well. I couldn’t do much better. We missed a lot of points in defence. They are very good in the attack and blocking. We didn’t react very well to the counter-attack. In the fourth set, it was the weakest
part of the match,” said Italy’s opposite player Carolina Costagrande after losing the match.
Massimo Barbolini the Italian mentor also expressed his views. He said: “It was a good match, we played at the same level as one of the best teams in the world, and we even managed to catch up on them at some point. We could and should do more, but I think
this match left us with a good feeling.”
On the other hand, the winning captain and coach of Russian team seemed totally delighted about their wonderful victory in the match. They also looked satisfied with the overall progress of the team during first round of the tournament.
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