Italy all set for the Finals, hammer emphatic shutout of Belgium

With Czechia losing to Serbia in the first women’s Volleyball Nations League match of the day in Apeldoorn, Italy mathematically secured their spot in the Finals in Lodz, but they also reconfirmed it with a merciless sweep of their game against Belgium. So after Brazil booked a spot in the VNL quarterfinals earlier on Wednesday, the defending champions became the second team to formally join hosts Poland among the top eight of the competition. Italy lead the current VNL standings undefeated in nine matches played on 25 points. Belgium are 14^th on a 3-6 win-loss record and 8 points.

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The reigning Olympic champions opened their Apeldoorn campaign of the last competition week in the Preliminary Phase with an emphatic 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-18) shutout of Belgium.

Although the team’s two opposites – Paola Egonu and Ekaterina Antropova – split the three sets of playing time between them, they emerged as the two best scorers of the match. 22-year-old Antropova, who subbed in for Italy’s brightest star Egonu, came up with a match-high 12 points, including the match winner. She served an ace, put up two kill blocks and attacked at a 64% success rate. All of Egonu’s 10 points came in swings at a 56% success rate. 22-year-old opposite Pauline Martin was Belgium’s leading scorer with eight points, all in spikes.

“I’m really happy! We played a strange game, but the important thing is that we won, so we are happy for that. For sure, we will focus on our growth during the week,” Italy’s middle blocker and captain Anna Danesi told VBTV. “We play really well together, we have fun when we play, so we try to focus only on what we do and we try to get better every day.”

The day’s next VNL match, between Germany and Canada, to be played in Arlington, USA, is set to start at 12:30 local time (17:30 UTC). The last Apeldoorn game of the day, between hosts Netherlands and Turkiye, will serve off an hour later, at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).

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