Turkey outmuscled Italy in a challenging 3-0 match at the Montreux Volley Masters 2015
Montreux, Switzerland, May 28, 2015 - Turkey claimed a 3-0 (25-17, 28-26, 25-22) win over Italy and a second consecutive victory to secure their place in the semifinals of the Montreux Volley Masters 2015.
Polen Uslupehlivan was the top scorer with 15 points in Turkey’s winning performance.
The beginning of the first set was very close with Raffaella Calloni’s spike equalising the score at 4-all. Italy trailed Turkey in the next plays but a missed spike by Uslupehlivan brought the Italians back into the game at 9-all. After that error, Turkey opened the gap to 23-15. Just like in their 3-1 victory over Germany on Wednesday, the Turkish girls moved on to win the first set easily at 25-17.
Turkey were leading at the first technical timeout of the second set, scoring three straight points to reach 8-6. Seda Aslanyurek scored from the three-metre line to raise their lead to 9-6. The Italians did not budge and scored four points in a row to tie the score at 11-all. Bursa Cansu helped her team with an ace to keep a two-point advantage for Turkey 18-16, just before Italian coach Marco Bonitta called for a timeout. Italy responded with a spike from Paola Egonu and eventually equalised the score at 20-all. The Italians put more pressure on the Turkish side as they reached the score of 24-22. However, a reversal of the situation brought the score to 24-all. Italy missed three set balls to reward Turkey with a 28-26 victory in the second set.
Turkey dominated in the third set but Italy managed to bounce back and tie the score at 10-all. Italy then blocked an attack to take the lead at 14-13, but Turkey were persistent to claim a bigger advantage at 20-16. Turkey overpowered the Italians in the third set 25-22.