Friday,
November 16, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
In
a 12 Team, 11 game schedule,
In
any case it looks like a good season for Both Italy and
2007-11-15
NAGOYA, Japan, Nov.15 (Xinhua) -- Italy secured a ticket to the Beijing Olympics by recording its 10th straight win in the women's volleyball World Cup, beating Cuba in straight sets.
Playing without injured captain Eleonora Lo Bianco but with former Cuba star Taismary Aguero in the line-up, the European champion landed the 27-25, 25-19, 25-16 victory to seal a top-three finish with one match to go.
"I think we
played a good match. We have improved day by day," said
With superb points win-loss ratio in hands and only the United States to conquer in the 12-team round-robin tournament, the Italians were in a great position to win their first World Cup title.
"Tomorrow we
play the
The hard-fought first
set proved to be decisive in the big match. Cuba erased a 22-17 deficit to pull
within 24-22 and went on to overtake the lead at 25-24, but Simona
Gioli then came up with two big plays,
saving a Cuban set point with a stylish winner before blocking Kenia Carcaces to bring up
Italy's fourth set point at 26-25. A net touch gave
The last two sets were dominated by the Italians, who reaped a total of 24 points through Cuban errors.
"The results
show you how good this team is. Throughout the game the momentum was always
with
Aguero
and Antonella Del Core each scored 12 points for
Having
dropped to a 7-3 record,
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