Italy finish Hong Kong tournament on 4-0; China suffers second setback in a row
In front of over 10 thousand spectators in Hong Kong, hosts China took a one-set lead twice in their Volleyball Nations League 2023 game against Italy, but with substitution outside hitter Alice Degradi stepping in, the defending champions came back to achieve a 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22, 15-12) victory in the last game of the Pool 3 programme on Sunday. Having won all four of their matches in Hong Kong, Italy are now firmly above the line for the Finals, standing eighth in the current table on a 5-3 win-loss record and 12 points. Meanwhile China suffered their second consecutive loss in the competition and dropped to 6-2 and 18 in fourth place.
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV
While China’s outside Li Yingying was by far the best scorer of the match on 24 points, including three kill blocks and an ace, followed by opposite Gong Xiangyu with 17 and middle blocker and captain Yuan Xinyue with 15, opposite Sylvia Nwakalor and outside and captain Myriam Sylla shared the top scorer honours on the winners’ side with 15 points each, with Degradi following closely behind with 14.
Italy celebrate their fourth victory out of four matches in Hong Kong
To illustrate the even battle that unfolded throughout the first set of the match, the score swung from two points Italy’s way to three points China’s way and back to two points Italy’s way at 19-17. The home team equalized at 19-19 and then they kept a point-for-point battle through 23-23. Then they scored a break point to earn the first set point, which was immediately converted by Yuan Xinyue with an ace. The situation was not much different on the court during set two. The fierce fight continued and the gap went wider than two points only twice during the set, at 7-4 and 18-15 in favour of the European team. Finally, Italy’s Myriam Sylla delivered the 25-23 set winner in attack.
Stepping up their spiking efforts with Li Yingying leading the way, China stayed well in control of the scoreboard from the first to the last rally of the third set. After 20-18, the Asians went on a five-point spree, finished off by Italy’s sub-in Alice Degradi with a long shot out of bounds for 25-18 China’s way.
However, the outside hitter more than made up for this mistake in the next two sets. Spearheading the attack, Degradi led her team with six kills in the fourth and another six in the tie-breaker as…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…