Women’s VNL: Italy Faces a Tough Challenge but Pulls Through Just in Time: Serbia Defeated

Italy’s women’s volleyball team secured its second win in two matches in the Philippines: in their Group 5 match, the Azzurre defeated Serbia 3-2 (25-14, 25-14, 18-25, 21-25, 15-12), at the end of a match in which the team coached by Julio Velasco dominated the first two sets, squandered their lead in the next two (in the fourth set, a 5-point lead at 21-16 wasn’t enough) and got back on track just in time to avoid a comeback loss—which, given their dominance for much of the match, would have been a major upset.

The top scorers were Josephine Obossa and Sarah Farh, the former with 18 total points and the latter with 17. Linda Nwakalor’s offensive performance was particularly impressive, especially during the most critical moments; she scored a total of 13 points, while Ekaterina Antropova finished with 12. For Serbia, Nina Calic was the last to give up: the 24-year-old outside hitter was, however, the only player to reach double digits, though she finished as the match’s top scorer with 19 points.

For the Azzurre, this marks their second win in two matches played in Pasig, following Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over the Czech Republic. Overall, Italy has five wins and just one loss: during the first week in Brasília, the women’s national team defeated Bulgaria and the Netherlands 3-0 and Turkey 3-1, losing only to the host team, Brazil, in a tiebreaker.

The second week of competition will conclude this weekend: the Azzurre will take the court, again in Pasig, on Saturday, June 20, against the United States and on Sunday, June 21, against Japan. In the third week, from July 8 to 12, Italy will complete the first phase by facing Ukraine, Belgium, Canada, and China in Hong Kong.