Croatia celebrates the first win in the Women's World Championship Italy 2014
Rome, Italy, September 23, 2014- Croatia claims a 3-1 victory (25-17, 26-28, 26-24, 25-19) over Argentina in the opening match of the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014 at the PalaLottomatica.
Argentina’s last appearance in a World Championship was during the German edition in 2002, while Croatia’s best placement was the 6th place in the 1998 Japan edition.
Samanta Fabris led Croatia with 16 points and Mia Jerkov added 14 points. Argentina was paced by Yamila Nizetich with 16 points and Leticia Boscacci contributed 10 points.
Key Facts*Samanta Fabris, coming from the bench closed the match as the top scorer of Croatia.* In the first set Croatia's Senna Usic Jogunica made 80% of positive reception and 75% of attack’s efficiency.*Croatia out-blocked Argentina 15-10
The match saw a good start by Croatia with a good serve turn by Sanja Popovic, followed by Mia Jerkov’s ace, but Argentina was well into the match thanks to its opposite Lucia Fresco’s spikes, so at the first technical timeout Croatia took a 2 points lead. Argentina’s block started to score 2 points in a row so all the team took confidence and filled the gap tying the score at 10-10. Another important break scored by Croatia forced Guillermo Orduna to call time out at 14-11 and to change the second line to help the reception with Josefina Fernandez. Croatia kept a high level spike percentage so that Argentina used the second time out at 18-13 and changed its opposite with Leticia Boscacci in. Angelo Vercesi’s team easily closed the set at 25-17.
The second set started as the end of the previous one, and Croatia immediately forced the serves flying at 8-3 at the first technical timeout. Two spikes of the new entered Tanya Acosta and a Croatia’s setter fault helped Argentina to tie the score at 8-8. Ivana Milos for Croatia overcame the opponents in this phase blocking each spike. Argentina tried to change its opponents and its wing spiker but the second technical timeout arrived with captain Maja Poljak’s team having four points of advantage at 16-12. Argentina tried a quick comeback into the set with its captain’s Yamila Nizetich serve turn and actually tied the score at 20-20. In this part of the set the counter-attacks phase was balanced for both teams, but Croatia claimed the set ball after a debated referee’s decision, cancelled by a very long and extraordinary rally won by Argentina. The set went on point by point, and Argentina claimed the victory with an ace at the score of 28-26.
The third set started with the change of the opposite for Croatia with Samanta Fabris in. Argentina played with more tranquility after claimed an hard set as the second one was, and immediately got a four points lead at 8-4 and kept this gap even in the second technical timeout at 16-12. It was again Senna trying to recover the set for Croatia with spikes and important defensive touches and managed to tie the score at 17-17. The rallies were longer in the final part of the set underlining the importance of the result for the remain of the match. Croatia’s block broke the balance and gave the set to Angelo Vercesi’s team at 26-24.
In the fourth set Croatia’s block strongly show its efficacy with two points in a row scored by captain Poljak. Reds and white’s game kept on fluid and opponents many errors helped Croatia go six points ahead at 17-11. There was no more possibility for Argentina to come back into the match and Croatia closed the match at the score of 25-19.
Tomorrow there will be two very hard matches for Croatia and Argentina: the first one will face the host team Italy, and the second one will challenge Germany.