Italy stunned the world’s number one team and defending Volleyball Nations League champions Türkiye at their home in Antalya on Saturday with a four-set victory that brought them a precious 10.65 points, lifted them to number four in the FIVB World Ranking and solidified their candidacy for an Olympic ticket to Paris 2024. Earlier on Saturday, the Netherlands suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Poland in Antalya that pushed them down below Canada in the chart and below the qualification cut-off in the ranking.
After wasting five set points and losing the first set dramatically, Italy pushed on to celebrate a 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-21, 25-19) upset of the home team and disappoint the 11 thousand Turkish fans on the stands. The Italians were spearheaded by opposite Ekaterina Antropova, who piled up 23 points towards the victory, acing as many as five times in the process. Outside hitters Alice Degradi and Caterina Bosetti added 16 and 11 points, respectively, while middle blocker and captain Anna Danesi raised five kill blocks to finish with 10 points. On Türkiye side, opposite Melissa Vargas hammered out an impressive match high of 33 points.
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The first set was about a huge scoring race between Vargas and Antropova. After 21-20 Italy’s way, Antropova followed up on a successful spike with two back-to-back aces to give her team a quadruple set point. Inspired by the fantastic support from the home crowd, Türkiye fought back, as playmaker Cansu Ozbay crowned their four-point run with an ace to level the score at 24-24. Another Italian set point was denied before a monster block by Hande Baladin and a successful swing by Vargas put an end to it all at 27-25 Türkiye’s way. It was Italy’s serving that made the difference in the second set. They fired four aces, two by Bosetti and one each by Antropova and setter Carlotta Cambi, against none for the home team, and that accounted exactly for the gap in the final score of 25-21. Vargas hammered another eight points for Türkiye in the set, but this time it was Antropova, who hammered the set winner.
The serving continued to bring Italy what Türkiye were lacking in set three as well. Antropova fired two aces. Anna Danesi also scored from the serving line to help tilt the balance Italy’s way for another 25-21, shaped up by Danesi with an overpass kill for the set winner. In set four, Italy completely dominated on the court, led by Alice Degradi in attack. In the end, it was Antropova again, who delivered the 25-19 set and match winner with an off-the-block spike. It was Italy’s third win in four matches played, while Türkiye dropped to a 1-2 win-loss record.
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