 Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, July 8, 2009 - With still one competition day to go for the second round of the 2009 Girls' Youth World Championships Brazil, Serbia, Belgium and Turkey all posted victories in their respective matches to clinch a spot in the semifinals.
Belgium beat Italy 3-2 (25-17, 25-27, 25-19, 17-25, 15-9). Belgian captain and star Lise van Hecke – MVP at the last European Championships – set the tone in the first set with her killing spikes. In the second set the Italians finally changed gear as they increased their efficiency in blocking and receiving and giant Valentina Diouf (202 cm) finally got into the match. Letizia Camera and her mates had a marvelous start in the third set, with a great 7-2 opening. However, the trend of the game completely changed in a few minutes as Belgium bounced back into the lead profiting of some silly mistakes of the Italians right before van Hecke got out of rhythm for another tie at 15. Like in the match against Turkey, the Italians lacked of consistency and their many ups and downs facilitated the job for the Belgians who moved up the set count to 2-1. In the fourth set the Italian "babies" were finally to be seen at their best: tricky services, a few aces, imposing blocks and good variations in attack did not leave a chance to the Belgians who were struggling a lot and did not keep their nerves under control. The tie-break was literally breath-taking: after a few extraordinary rallies, teams changed side with Italy setting the pace at 8-7 but Belgium scored six points in a row to keep walking towards another victory.
Having gone through a stellar match against Japan which was physically very demanding but certainly well motivated the girls for the upcoming challenges, Serbia resumed to the court in the Mall Convention Center early in the morning to face Peru and proceed in a marvelous run towards the semifinals with another win in five sets (25-16, 25-17, 20-25, 22-25, 15-7).
Today's second match in the main hall featured the likes of Brazil, undoubtedly a team that is vying for gold here at the World Championship, and Japan, a real favorite of the Thai audience at the Mall Convention Center. The game was perceived as extremely interesting for any volleyball fan, as the tall Brazilians were likely to test out the amazingly quick game of the "tiny" Japanese that already caused so many troubles yesterday to European silver medalist Serbia. Brazil continued a triumphant march in this World Championship although the South Americans lost their first set in this competition (27-25, 19-25, 28-26, 25-15) to face Serbia for the first place in Pool E.
In front of an excited and massive audience the Thai girls were back to the court – after the quick defeat they had suffered yesterday against European champion Belgium – and there was very much curiosity for this game as rumors had been spreading that most of the local heroines were sick and had fever. Thailand set the pace for most of the first set but in the decisive rallies Turkey stormed back strongly to get to the provisional 1-0. However, the local fans boosted their girls very well in the second section of the game with their traditional choirs, cheers and drums. The Thais led comfortably at both technical time-outs and the people got completely crazy as they leveled the set count to stay tuned in the match. Turkish captain Kestirengoz performed splendidly in the opening of the third set for an incredible 9-0 break to restore the predominance of her team and really cool down the overwhelming enthusiasm of the local fans. The Thais were not yet keen to give up and significantly narrowed the margin for an exciting final rush. Such rallies were definitely full of tension and the ambiance get really weird, with some disappointment at the end as the Turks notched the set at 26-24. The fourth set run quite smoothly for Turkey and with the final 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 26-24, 25-15). |