Vakifbank
Best scorer of the match was Istanbul’s captain Kirdar Sonsirma Gözde with 11 points. Andrea Justine Landi helped her side with ten winners.
Gözde (7 points in the opening set) led her squad to an undisputed first set win. Even though there was not much to separate the two teams at the start of tonight’s Pool B duel (10-8), the European champions progressively took command of the match. The Guidetti team showed all their power at the net, giving the US blockers a hard time (25-16).
Iowa Ice kept an excellent team spirit early in the second set. The squad of coach Janelle Hester led 5-3 but could not benefit from their advantage as Istanbul quickly regained momentum. At the first technical break, the Europeans led 8-7 and extended the margin gradually to seven points at the second technical timeout. Setter Naz Aydemir repeatedly found gaps in the US defense, putting a lot of pressure on libero Caitlin Mahoney and her teammates. At 24-12, Carolina Costagrande closed it out for the Turks with a remarkable block winner on Andrea Landi.
For the third set, Vakifbank coach Giovanni Guidetti sent in Uslupehlivan Polen for Jovana Brakocevic and Jelena Nikolic for Carolina Costagrande. However, it did not change much in terms of relative strength and score. Guidetti continued his replacements with younger players getting a look-in. 23-year young Polen brought up match ball at 24-17 before Güldeniz ended it 25-17 and 3:0 for the favorites from Europe.
To read more information about this competition click on Club World Championship 2013 W.
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