Belgium – Italy
Pool I saw an exciting opener between Belgium and Italy. The Southern Europeans may have been taken by surprise by their opponents as Belgium claimed the three points from this encounter with a 3-1 victory. Italian captain Milan Sebastiano topped the scorers’ chart with 17 points, while Jonas Colson with 15 scored the most for the winning team.
From the very beginning of the first set Belgium started piling up an advantage in the score. More prolific in serving and blocking, the team of head coach Steven Vanmedegael opened a 6-point gap for 12-6. At 20-14 and later again at 23-18 it already seemed pretty clear who will win the set, but the Italians had different thoughts on their minds. They were able to narrow their lag to only a point, but in the end a powerful spike gave the Belgians the set at 25-23.
Italy took a small lead at the beginning of the second set, but was able to maintain it only through the first technical time-out. Immediately after that, Belgium took control by scoring 6 points in a row with Laszlo De Paepe on the serve and another 6 a couple of rotations later, this time with Lowie Stuer behind the line, to up the score to a convincing 19-10. Italy tried hard to recover from this blow, but its efforts only led to a less embarrassing lag at the final 25-19, shaped up by a kill hit from Arno Van De Velde through the middle for the last point.
The Italians came out for the third set very focused. They reduced their unforced errors while stepping up their serving efforts. Oreste Cavuto’s successful attacks and serves helped his team gain a solid advantage at 18-10 and it was now Belgium’s turn to fight back. Stuer’s performance from the serving line once again gave Italy a hard time. A series of 5 points gave the Belgians some hope for a turnaround as soon after they were only a point behind at 19-20. However, the team of Andrea Tomasini kept on their toes and made sure they did not let the set slip away – 25-20.
The forth set was the most exciting one and it turned into a real roller coaster with its ups and downs in the score. The beginning belonged to the Belgians as they piled up a 6-2 lead. Italy was quick with the answer – 7:6 and then 12-8. It stayed in control almost through the end as it had 2 set points at 24-22. After Belgium saved the first one it was Robbe Vandeweyer’s turn to serve. Two aces down the road it was 26-24 and Robbe fell into the arms of his teammates.
Steven Vanmedegael, head coach of Belgium: “It was very tough for sure. We played three times against each other last week. They won three times in straight sets, so we knew that it was going to be very difficult. But we talked a lot with the players in the past few days and we put a lot of work in analyzing their game so we knew how to beat them. But you never know, they have players they can put in the game. We do not have that many players, and have to make sure that the ones on the court play well. I am happy.”
Andrea Tomasini, head coach of Italy: “For us this was not a good match. We hope that we will play better in the matches to come.”
Sebastiano Milan, captain of Italy: “This match was very, very hard. Belgium has a really good team. We did not play that well in the first part of the match, but we got better. Belgium has a good side-out and we lost this match, but tomorrow will be a better day.“
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.
