Italy – Turkey
Italy coach Davide Mazzanti trusted his starting six, changing only two players for some rallies. Edman Gökhan only decided for a different starting six in the third set, giving chances to Ezgi Dilik. With the Turkish very reactive in the third and fourth set, Italy had to sweat a lot to get to the fifth, driven by the spikes of Elena Perinelli (20 points at the end) and profiting by some nice attacks. The tie break was led by Italy by 2 points until a 7-all, then Turkey got the lead, with an alternate drop of heavy spikes and tips in the Italian court, eventually closing the set blocking Anna Nicoletti. Setter Akin Çagla set really fine, having her team-mate Kubra Akman as match best scorer with 23 kills.
Italy coach Davide Mazzanti: “We had some problems with the reception. But it’s normal if you play against Turkey. Our blocks and digging wasn’t very well today. We would like to play better in this tournament. We did also many mistakes on service. I know our service is much better, but it was our first game on the championship and against a big team. So I’m happy of our performance.“
Italy captain Cristina Chirichella: “We are tired because today was a very important day for us. We fought from the first ball till the end but we lost just for a few points. It was the first match for us on this championship and we didn’t play bad but we’ll try to play better during the tournament. Turkey is a very good team: they fight a lot and celebrate any single ball. Good for them.“
Turkey coach Gökhan Edman: “The most important factor of our win was the psychological aspect. We fought with two different opponents. In the first set it we had to play against us, our fears, then for the rest of the match we fought against Italy. The most important technical difference between the teams was in our block and defense. We are very happy because Italy is the last world champion. I’d like to congratulate Italy too. It was a high level game.“
Turkey captain Damla Cakiroglu: “First of all this was really hard game for us. We prepared well but our blocks and also attacks were not very good at the beginning. I’m so happy to win this game because it was the most important match in the group. Italy is a really strong team and I would like to congratulate them also. Today is my birthday and I want to thank my team-mates for this present. I’d also like to thank our fans for the support. They came from Turkey and their cheering was great.“
To read more news from this competition click on Junior World Championship 2013 W.
