Italian teammates celebrate after getting the pass to the gold medal match
Lima, Peru, August 15, 2015 – Italy booked a ticket to the title match at the FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U18 World Championship with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-14) victory over Turkey at Eduardo Dibos Coliseum of Lima on Saturday night.
Italy will meet United States in the decisive match on Sunday night at 20:00 local time. The Americans had clinched their berth with a semifinal win against China.
One again Paola Egonu was the offensive leader for the Italian side with 22 points, including four aces. Vittoria Piani added 16 and Giulia Mancini contributed 11 tallies, including seven blocks.
Yasemin Ozel and Zehra Gunes each registered 12 points for Turkey while Saliha Sahin and Yasemin Guvell charted 9 points apiece.
Italy led in aces 11-7 but lost the blocking battle 14-11. The winners held the advantage in spikes 45-32.
Italy had a slow start with inconsistent plays. Turkey led 8-4 and 16-11 but Italy came back on the shoulders of Egonu. It was not enough as Turkey took the set 25-23 with the spike by Gunes.
It was the other side of the coin in the second with Italy leading 8-4 and 16-11 before Turkey closed in dangerously tying at 22-all. Italy won 25-23.
Egonu’s attacks and serves led Italy in the third set they won easily 25-18.
The fourth set was dominated by Italy from start to finish with 8-5 and 16-8 leads at the technical time-outs. The set finished 25-14 when the serve by Akyaldiz sailed long.