Nations League: 'Italy folds Turkey in tie-break. Velasco: "Beautiful and heavy victory"
Italy beats Turkey 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-11) in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands in the Nations League and maintains its unbeaten streak, bringing its record to 25 consecutive wins in official competitions.
For coach Julio Velasco’s team, it is also the 11th win in Volleyball Nations League 2025: credit, today, mainly to Kate Antropova who in the fourth set and fifth set dragged her teammates in the comeback to the final tie-break victory.
Between 2007 and 2008, Italy coached at the time by Massimo Barbolini achieved 26 wins in a row, and tomorrow, against the Netherlands, the Olympic champions can equal that record. Antropova scored 20 points, Paola Egonu 17, Sarah Fahr 14, for Daniele Santarelli’s girls, on the other hand, 27 from Vargas and 15 from Karakurt.
Julio Velasco (from federvolley.it): “I am very happy with this which is an extraordinary victory achieved against a Turkey that played great. They defended, counterattacked, beat well and yet we reacted by putting everything on the court. I congratulate my girls because they played this game very well coming out as a team. Almost all of them came in and gave what was needed at every moment of the match when called upon.”
“This is a really beautiful and heavy victory – Velasco continued -. Now we can lengthen the streak of victories equaling the one recorded some time ago by Italy directed by Massimo Barbolini who is now my assistant. And he is part of this new streak, Massimo is an exceptional coach, a friend and a fundamental part of a staff that also includes Juan Cichello and many other professionals who are contributing to this exceptional moment. Tomorrow, however, we have to face Holland and to talk about records we will have to win and play another great game, so focused and ready to close in the best way this third week of Volleyball Nations League.”
Ekaterina Antropova: “We expected a difficult match, especially after their defeat yesterday with the Czech Republic, we expected a charged Turkey and we were good not to be surprised at the first difficulty by coming out of the match strong. My physical condition? I prefer that it is always the field that speaks and shows how I am. We approached this season by living game by game, the pressures are slipping off us and we are focusing on the field and what we need to do every day to improve and grow. Hopefully the pressure is on our opponents because in a few days we will start playing for something important.”
