Igor Gorgonzola Novara privateer, conquered Cuneo in three sets
Fifth consecutive success for Lorenzo Bernardi’s Igor Volleyball, which overcame Cuneo 0-3 and thus continued its positive streak. Azzurre dragged by Tolok (top scorer of the match, 18 points) and Alsmeier (10) awarded MVP of the challenge. Cuneo on the court with Diop opposite Signorile, Koulisiani and Keene in the middle, Marring and Pucelj in the middle, and Bardaro at libero; Igor with Cambi at the director’s position and Tolok in the diagonal, Bonifacio and Baijens in the middle, Alsmeier and Herbots in the middle and De Nardi at libero. Novara gets off to a strong start on Alsmeier’s serve (1-5, maniout by Tolok), Baijens also excelled on defense (6-11) and two points in a row by Tolok forced the hosts to timeout at 9-15. Baijens’ ace (12-18) and Cambi’s wall (12-20) mortgage the partial, which ends 14-25 with a Cuneo service error.
Cuneo reacts with Marring (4-1, winning diagonal), Diop closes a long exchange and keeps the distance (7-4) but Alsmeier concretizes a defense by Baijens (7-6) and shortly after Herbots puts the arrow finishing in maniout an endless exchange (10-11). Again Baijens for the break (13-15), Keene ties (15-15) but Tolok signs the new break that is worth +4 on 15-19; Novara wastes, Cuneo ties with Marring (20-20) and runs away at the wall (22-20) while Bernardi stops the game twice. The azzurre reacted, first time by Bonifacio (22-22) and an error by Marring earned set point (23-24) with Herbots making it 0-2 (23-25) on parallel. They go head to head again but Tolok breaks the balance (4-5) and Baijens in lob runs away (5-8) while Salvagni stops the game in vain; Tolok in parallel takes advantage of a great defense (7-11), two walls in succession for 9-15) and shortly after Herbots’ ace secures set and match at 12-19. The rest is done by two walls by Cambi and two points (one attack and one wall) by newly entered Squarcini for 14-25.
“The girls were good in the way they approached and approached the match, for us it is a beautiful and important victory – commented coach Lorenzo Bernardi -. There was only a moment in the second set, in which from 15-19 we went 22-20 but even at that juncture we managed the moment well, coming out on top and winning the partial. Then the third set we again led it from start to finish, I think overall we played a good match.” He was echoed by Britt Herbots: “This is always a very tough court and I think we were really good at starting off strong, aggressive, putting them down right away and maintaining control except for a little bit of a difficult moment in the second set, from which we still came out on top. They put a lot of teams in trouble, they are a team that beats well and fights but we made the difference in batting and then with very good wall-defense”.
