The two finalists will be known on Thursday – watch live on YouTube
Kasai scored 25 points in the Japanese victory over Thailand
Italy, Japan, Türkiye and the United States are the four national teams still standing in the 2023 FIVB Girls’ U19 Volleyball World Championship in Osijek, Croatia, and Szeged, Hungary.
Play resumed on Wednesday after one day off and the four sides advanced from the quarterfinals of the tournament, which were all held in Osijek, and will play in the semifinals on Thursday – the medal matches will be held on Friday. Japan will play Türkiye in one of the semfiinals, with Italy and the United States meeting in the other.
The tournament is streamed live on the Volleyball World YouTube channel.
Japan were the first to secure a spot in the semifinals in Osijek, overcoming Asian rivals Thailand in a dramatic five-set battle, in which the Japanese managed to claim a 3-2 (25-20, 20-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-10) victory.
Outside hitters Riri Kasai and Sae Omori were instrumental in the Japanese triumph, registering 25 and 19 points respectively. Thailand also had a pair of high-scoring outside hitters in the match as captain Warisara Seetaloed and Tanyapron Seeso left the court with 26 and 20 points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRyXO-PydRw
Their next opponents, Türkiye needed just four sets to dominate Bulgaria on the second quarterfinal duel of the day in Osijek. The Turkish advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 (25-22, 27-25, 22-25, 25-7) win.
Opposite Beren Yesilirmak led the winning offense with 20 points, while outside hitters Eylul Durgun and Liza Safronova scored 11 each. Bulgarian outside hitter Viktoria Koeva led all scorers with 21 points.
“We feel so good,” said middle blocker Begum Kacmaz. “We were so ambitious in this match, we wanted this win so much. We were winning, but then Bulgaria fought very hard. In the fourth set, we thought ‘OK, this is the World Championship, we have to do this’.”
Bulgarian blockers try to stop Safronova
The third quarterfinal also went to five sets and saw an incredible comeback from Italy over hosts Croatia. The Italians dropped the first two sets, but came back and managed to remain undefeated in the tournament with a 3-2 (22-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-14, 15-13) win.
Outside hitter Lisa Esposito was huge in the Italian comeback, firing a match-high 26 points – outside hitter Erika Esposito and middle blocker Linda Manfredini contributed 18 and 15 points, respectively….
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