Macau, Macau, Jul 16, 2017 – Italy saw off Turkey in three swift sets (25-13, 25-20, 25-14) on Sunday.
Cristina Chirichella finished the match with 14 points, with Miryam Fatime Sylla and Paola Ogechi Egonu also in the double digits, scoring 13 and 12, respectively. Turkey’s top scorer was Hande Baladin with 10 points.
The Italians played a dominant first set against Turkey and captured the first and second technical time-out with a healthy difference (8-2, 16-11). Italy’s Sylla and Chirichella were the stars of the set, Sylla made numerous attacks on the front court whilst Chirichella served a couple of aces. Turkey’s serving errors also contributed to Italy’s early lead in the first set (25-13).
The Turkish entered the second set with Babat’s swift and powerful spikes from the middle, however, Italy managed to reach their first technical time-out with Coach Davide’s successful block touch challenge (8-7). The Italians continued to triumph after the first technical time-out and they extended their lead to the end of the set (25-20).
Italy reached the first technical time-out without effort while the Turkish suffered miserably from serving, spiking and receiving misses. Italy’s Chirichella, Sylla and Egonu had a fair share of attacks at the net. Their team had a ten-point advantage toward the end of the set (22-12). Italy ended the game at 25-14, crowning themselves the champions of World Grand Prix Macau.