Italian junior men team
Italy opened a four-point gap by the second technical time-out of the first set, but immediately after that Argentina scored 5 points in a row with Fernando Arpajou behind the serving line to take the lead. However, the South Americans could not hold on to it any longer as Italy reacted immediately to up their performance again and rush to a 25-20 win. Argentina’s lead in the second set went as wide as seven points at 13-6. Italy managed to catch up at 22-22, but did not find the strength to completely turn things around as Gonzalo Quiroga capitalised on the first set point with a successful block-out for 25-23.
In set three Argentina took advantage of Italy’s many unforced errors to establish control and win it by 25-20. Italy responded with an impressive 25-15 in the fourth set with substitute player Gabriele Nelli contributing as many as 8 successful spikes. In a closely contested fifth set the gap never went wider than one point through 11-11. This is when Italy made their final run to the semi-finals. With Luca Borgogno serving, they scored 4 points in a row to end the match at 15-11 and unleash the celebration.
The block was the strongest weapon for the winning team in the match as it contributed as many as 16 points to the victory. Italy’s Gabriele Nelli, who entered the court during the second set as a substitute player, piled up 23 points on his account to top the scorers’ chart of the match. Gonzalo Quiroga scored 14 points for Argentina.
To see more photos from this match, click onGalleries.
For more information about this competition, click on Junior World Championship 2013 M
Also, see the WoV Community profiles of Argentina and Italy.
