Italy score big win and get closer to the Finals

The race for the final spots in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 has reached a critical point and defending champions Italy secured a big win, which significantly improved their chances of making the trip to Arlington, USA, in two weeks, on Friday, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Europeans had a face-off with direct opponents Canada and took advantage of the opportunity to pull out a 3-2 (22-25, 25-23, 25-14, 24-26, 15-10) victory at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

The victory made the Italians, who started the day in ninth place, leapfrog the Canadians and enter the qualification zone to the Finals, now ranking eighth with six wins (15 points) – with two more matches to play, the defending champions depend only on their own results to advance. The defeat was a brutal one for the Canadians, who dropped not one, but three spots to 11^th place with five wins (17 points) and have only one more match in the Preliminary Phase.

Outside hitters Alice Degradi and Francesca Villani carried the Italian offense, with each of them producing 21 points. The 27-year-old Degradi had 15 kills, four aces and two blocks, while the 28-year-old Villani had 19 kills, one ace and one block.

Opposite Sylvia Nwakalor also had a strong night with 17 points (14 kills, three blocks) – she also scored the game-winning point.

“We’re really happy about this win,” Nwakalor remarked. “It was a very tough match and playing difficult matches is very important for us if we want to compete in the Finals because every team there will be very strong. We need to have the right attitude against everyone. We’ll need to bring all our energy for these two matches we have left because we have to win them.”

Canada had three players reaching double digits in scoring in team captain and outside hitter Alexa Gray, with 18 points, opposite Kiera Van Ryk, with 15, and middle blocker Emily Maglio, with 13.

Italy’s vast superiority in kills (64 to 53) and blocks (17 to ten) built the way for their victory as the edge on those skills helped the Europeans prevail despite the Canadian higher production in aces (seven to six) and opponent errors (28 to 24).

Italy will play Croatia on Saturday, at 13:00 local time (06:00 UTC) and Japan on Sunday at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC) to end their VNL Preliminary Phase campaign, while Canada will get on the court on Saturday against the Netherlands, at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC).

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

The match between Canadians and Dutch will have a lot of weight in the race for a spot in the VNL Finals, especially after the Netherlands secured a 3-1 (25-22, 25-17, 21-25, 25-20) win over seventh-placed Japan on Thursday and moved up to ninth place with five victories (17 points).

Opposite Celeste Plak had a strong performance against the Asians, producing a match-high 24 points (20 kills, four blocks), followed by outside hitter Nika Daalderop, with 16. Opposite Yukiko Wada and outside hitter Sarina Koga were Japan’s main scorers with 18 and 16 points, respectively.

Japan will face hosts Thailand on Saturday, at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC).

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