Lubian on fire as Italy defeat the Netherlands

The Italian players all had a solid performance as the team claimed their second Volleyball Nations League 2022 victory to climb to the third place in the current standings. Middle blocker Marina Lubian delivered some of the key points, including the winner, in an emphatic 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-15) shutout of the Netherlands on Friday in Ankara.

· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.

The Dutch entered the game a little better and even had a 7-4 lead, but then managed to stay competitive only through 12-12. Stepping up their efforts in attack, the Italians broke away on an 8-1 run and never looked back. Outside hitter Alice Degradi managed to squeeze the ball between the Dutch blockers and the net to close the first set at 25-19.

“We have a lot of good players,” Degradi said after the match. “It is a difficult tournament, so it’s great that a lot of our players have the opportunity to play and improve. For example, I did not play so well yesterday, but I received another opportunity today and I am happy.”

Italy continued to dominate in set two. A fabulous one-person block by setter Francesca Bosio in the middle pushed them forward to a 4-1 lead. In the next rally, middle blocker Lubian returned the favour by setting a great ball for Sylvia Nwakalor to hammer for 5-1. The 22-year-old opposite went on to pile up a match high 17 points, including three kill blocks, towards a League total of 61, which puts her on top of the tournament’s best scorers chart.

The set was closed by Lubian at 25-15. Her beautiful spike through the middle was one of her team’s 17 kills in the set, compared to only nine for the Netherlands.

Italy stormed into the third set on a series of points crowned by Lubian’s ace, perfectly placed in the corner of the Dutch half for 4-0.

Half way through the set, a long rally ended with libero Monica De Gennaro setting a perfect ball for Degradi to kill for 15-9. Amazingly, that same scenario repeated again and again in the next two rallies as Italy ran off with a huge 17-9 lead.

Cruising towards the victory, coach Davide Mazzanti’s squad entertained the spectators with several spectacular monster blocks in the epilogue. Taking credit for one of those, Lubian delivered the match point at 24-14 and a moment later hammered the ball to the floor to convert it to a 25-15 close.

“We worked well in stopping their side-out and achieved a lot of break points,” Degradi added. “It was good to maintain a big point difference between us and them, which allowed us to play calmer.”

Lubian, who was not among the starters and did not score any points in Italy’s previous two matches, impressed with a total of two aces, five successful spikes and a kill block on Friday, while several of her teammates reached the double digits in scoring. In addition to top scorer Nwakalor’s 17 points, Degradi contributed 13, Alessia Gennari signed off with 11 and Alessia Mazzaro finished with 10. Elles Dambrink was the most prolific scorer on the Dutch side with nine points.

Standing third on a 2-1 win-loss record and six points, Italy’s last match in Ankara will take place on Saturday at 16:00 local time (13:00 GMT), when they take on China.

Still winless in three games, the Netherlands will finish the first competition week with a match against Serbia on Sunday at 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT).

Earlier on Friday in Ankara, the Serbs came back from a solid first-set deficit to celebrate a hard-fought 3-0 (26-24, 25-15 26-24) shutout of Bulgaria, their second win of the tournament that put them on top of the current standings with seven points. Their captain Ana Bjelica contributed the match high of 17 points.

Volleyball Nations League 2022: Full schedule and results

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