News
National Team News
The second day in the women’s volleyball competition in Tokyo 2020 came to an end and only two European teams remain unbeaten so far. Serbia recorded another straight-set win, this time against the Olympic Games hosts, Japan. Italy clashed with Turkey in all-European match, recording a four-set victory. ROC celebrated their first successful result after beating Argentina earlier on Tuesday.
ROC vs Argentina 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-13)
ROC bounced back after their loss during opening day of the women’s competition at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 to claim a smooth victory against Argentina. Nataliya Goncharova was the key player to ROC’s success, scoring 17 points, including 13 winning spikes and 4 blocks. Her teammate Irina Koroleva also recorded a great performance in blocking, scoring 5 points in this element. Irina Voronkova showed her skills from the service line, gaining 3 aces for her squad.
Irina Fetisova“Today we played better, showed a good level on the block, which we lacked in the game with Italy. They interacted better in defense, in general the block-defense combinations were better. I think today we could have played better at the reception, but it's good that our players showed a good percentage of attack today. It is very important that after the match with Italy we were able to pull ourselves together and win 3-0 and with a fairly good score in each game.”
Japan vs Serbia 0-3 (23-25, 16-25, 24-26)
Serbia faced the Olympic Games hosts Japan in their second match of the competition. The Serbian team recorded the second straight-set win, although Japan challenged the winning team a lot in the first and third set. Tijana Boskovic emerged not only as a leading scorer of the match, but crashed the match statistics with a 34-point tally. The opposite scored 31 winning spikes, 2 blocks and one ace. While no one came close to challenge Boskovic’s score, Mina Popovic shined at the net with 5 blocks.
Italy v Turkey 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 25-15)
Following their match with ROC on Sunday, Italians were set to face another European opponent - Turkey. After two very close sets and a tie score 1-1, Italy dominated the match claiming the remaining two sets to claim their second victory thus far in the competition. While Italy proved stronger than Turkey in attack, block and serve, they recorded more errors than Giovanni Guidetti’s squad. Paola Egonu was yet again the best scorer in her squad, delivering 29 impressive points - 26 winning spikes, 2 blocks and 1 ace. Italians performed well collectively in block with Ofelia Malinov, Anna Danesi and Sarah Fahr all scoring 3 blocks each. Zehra Gunes emerged as the leading scorer on the Turkish side, with 14 points - 9 winning spikes, 4 blocks and 1 ace. Her block tally was also the highest among all Turkish players in this match. Eda Erdem and Meryem Boz followed with 11 points each.
Anna Danesi“I don't think there is a single element that emerged in particular, but it was our collective that was making a difference. I am sure, however, that we can play an even better volleyball and if it were for us we will play every day, without any rest. Turkey plays a very fast volleyball, but we have been working in block and we could see the results of that. In our free time we try to relax and have fun, and with a group like this it is impossible not to do so".
Miryam Sylla“We had seen the match they played with China and we knew it was going to be very tough. Turkey is a bit like us, when they get on the ball, it gets on fire! We were good at defending and touching a lot on the block. We had some difficulties, but through persistence we managed to bring home this very important result. I didn't play on Sunday, I made my debut today, although maybe I was more excited against ROC. Today I didn't think I was in the Olympics and my team was great in supporting me”.
On Thursday all four teams will be back on court to play their third match at the Olympic Games. Italians will take on Argentina in the first match of the day. Serbia will be facing Kenya, while the reigning Olympic champions, China, will clash with ROC. In the last match of the day Turkey will be competing against USA.