Italy and Turkey advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2021 FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championship in Durango, after a dominant performance over Canada and host Mexico respectively on Sunday at FENADU Venue.

In Monday’s quarterfinals at FENADU venue, Italy will face Romania who prevailed in a five-set thriller to Slovakia and Turkey goes up against defending champion United States who also won a five-set battle to Argentina.

Italy, who won Pool B in the preliminary round, continues their winning streak after an overwhelming three-set victory that lasted less than one hour (0:56 minutes) against Canada.

Italy vs Canada 3-0 (25-10, 25-10, 25-13)

Italian players easily controlled Canada during the entire three sets. The Europeans impressed scoring 40 points from attacks against only 14 from their opponents. Italians were also better in blocks with five against none and a comfortable nine-three advantage in serves.

Outside hitters Dominika Giuliani (team captain) and Julia Ituma led Italy’s scorers producing sixteen points each.

Giulia Viscioni, opposite hitter of Italy said their coach told them before the match to play at their own rhythm, with liberty and as comfortable as possible giving the team serenity. About the result she expressed “we are so happy to reach the quarterfinals and we hope (are crossing our fingers) for a good result”.

Turkey, runner-up in Pool B, reached the final eight with a convincing victory against host Mexico. The Turkish players had a considerable resistance from Mexico at the beginning of the first set, with scores evened on numerous occasions, but managed to take control from point 14 forward. Turkey’s more dominant set was the second and in the third they easily recovered from an early four-point deficit (4-8) to then down Mexico in a straight sets.

Turkey vs Mexico 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-17)

Turkey mastered every skill with impressive margins, attacks (33-19), blocks (12-5) and serves (13-6). Both teams allowed seventeen points on unforced errors.

Opposite hitter and captain Pelin Eroktay of Turkey scored a match-high of 16 points, outside hitter Melisa Bukmen contributed with 13 points and middle blocker Deniznazlican Zengin scored the most blocks (5) from her ten points.

Outside hitter Aime Margarita Topete once again topped Mexico with 15 points, she was the only player with double-digits from the host team.

Pelin Eroktay, captain of Turkey said they were mentally prepared to face Mexico, “our job was to focus on our performance which we did pretty well, because we were expecting their (Mexico) supporters to be loud; the fans were awesome. We are a great team and today our performance was superior, but we can do better. Our goal is to reach the finals and we are ready for tomorrow”.

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2021 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship
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