MATCH INFO

 Ankara, Turkey, August 17, 2011- Suffering for 91 minutes, Italy hardly overcame the struggling Puerto Rico 3-1 (25-15, 16-25, 25-17, 25-14) in Pool H of the Girls’ Youth World Championship at Ankara Arena in Turkey on Wednesday.

FIVB Volleyball Girls' Youth World Championship

 Searching for the best ever result after the first round disappointment, Italy now qualified to the play off of the 9-12 positions after they improved their win- loss record to 2-0 in the second round, while Puerto Rico dropped to 0-2. Now Puerto Rico will compete for the 13- 16 positions.

 Italy big gun Elena Perinelli played a great role in that victory with her unstoppable hits from all the net position. She finished as the match scorer with 17 points, while Marie Victoria was Puerto Rico scorer with 10. 

 The match started with Italian pressure so that they came into the first technical timeout with 8-4 lead. After that the situation remained the same and Italy with attacks from Elena Perinelli continued to be ahead, 16-10. After the break Italian Ilaria Maruotti went on attacking the opposite team, whose reception was not in the best form. So after lost service by Puerto Rico the first set ended with decisive Italian victory 25-16.

 The second set started in totally opposite way, with several mistakes by Italy, Puerto Rico started their run forward 3-0. Improving emotions of Puerto Rico supported their performance as well so to the FTT they went with 8-1 advantage. They continued pressure on Italy with attacks from Marie Victoria and blocks by Sofia Jusino and reached the second technical timeout 16-5 ahead.

Toward the end of the set when the advantage of Puerto Rico was obvious 23-14, Italy still tried to fight their opponents. But lost service by Monica Gobbi decided the result of this set; Puerto Rico won 25-15.

Both teams returned on the court in the third set with strong will to overcome the opponents. Therefore from the first minutes tough fights and rallies started. Italy went to the FTT with lead 8-6, and such gap was kept until the STT, 16-13 lead of Italy. After the second break Italy started to increase their advantage with constant hits by Perinelli, 22-16. As a result with clear domination on the court during the last seconds Italy won this set, 25-17.

The fourth set started with the same tension that led to draw, 5-5. So the first technical timeout came with minimum lead by Puerto Rico 8-7. However at the second TTo Italy managed to go ahead 16-13. Mistakes in attack and pass of Puerto Rico gave Italy even easier way to increase scores, 22-13. Successful block by Ilaria Maruotti on last seconds just added to overall dominance of Italy in this set 25-14 and gave them the victory.