The Italian squad celebrate their success against the home team
Ankara, Turkey, July 5, 2015 – The women’s national team of Italy secured the runner-up position in the final standings of FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Pool C in Ankara. The Italians shut out Turkey by 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-17) to leave the opponent winless on home ground. Turkey’s Polen Uslupehlivan and Italy’s Alessia Gennari shared the honours as top scorers of the match with 17 points each.
After a tight beginning, around the second technical time-out of the first set Italy managed to open up a 4-point gap. Turkey fought back to tie the score at 21-21, but after 22-22 the visiting squad took advantage of some opponent errors to score three in a row and win the set by 25-22.
Polen Uslupehlivan led Turkey to an 8-3 advantage in the second set. She scored another break point to widen the gap to 11-5, but this was the point when Italy’s gradual comeback got started. The score was tied at 20-20; a rally later the Italians were in the lead. They kept it up through the end to win by 25-23.
The third set was quite one-sided. The Italians established their complete domination and did not allow the Turks to stay even close behind. They cruised to a 25-17 win and closed the match in straight sets.
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