Italy Upset China 3-1 in Semi-finals at Women's Volleyball

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, September 14, 2002

Italy Upset China 3-1 in Semi-finals at Women's Volleyball

Two-time world champions and pre-event favorites China failed to stop a strong Italian side and lost 3-1 in the semi-finals of the 2002 women's volleyball world championships in Berlin on Friday.

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Two-time world champions and pre-event favorites China failed to stop a strong Italian side and lost 3-1 in the semi-finals of the 2002 women's volleyball world championships here on Friday.

The Italians, who had reached their first ever semi-finals in any world championships, won the match 25-21, 25-20, 21-25 and 25-23.

In the championship final here on Sunday, Italy will play the United States, the 3-2 upset winners over Russia in an earlier semi-final here on the day.

And China, also Olympic champions at the 1984 Games, had to play Russia on Saturday for the third place.

The Italians came onto the court determined and obtained an early 3-2 lead before China caught up with at 3-3. But errors in both serves and blocking cost China several points before Italy pulled away from 13-13 and led 16-13 at the second technical time-out. The Chinese tried to narrow the gap but the Italians were obviously better and, helped greatly by high-leaping spiker Elisa Togu, they went on to win the set 25-21.

The two sides entered the second set with an attacking game and,after ties at 2-2 up to 10-10, the Chinese came to a 12-10 lead before the the Italian head coach Marco Bonitta called for a time-out. Italy caught up in no time at 15-15 and then 16-16, before going ahead to take the set 25-20, due to Chinese serving errors and at least two controversial rulings by Cuban referee Leon Garcia.

The Squadra Azzura, who had already proved themselves against Asian teams by defeating South Korea 3-0 in the quarter-finals andover Japan 3-0 in the first round, were too eager to win going into the third set. Such a mental state cost them the early and middle phases of the set and China led 16-14 at the second technical time-out. The Italians managed to earn one point after another, but that was not enough to stop the Chinese advance. TheAsian team won one set back with a 25-21 win.

The Chinese and their European opponents were proved to be equal in technical terms, both making a surprisingly high rate of serving errors in the third set. The Chinese managed to go ahead after drawing with the Europeans 3-3 in the early stage, leading 8-6 at the first technical time-out.

But the Italians soon came up to level with the Chinese and themiddle and later phases turned out to be a game, with fast attacksbeing proved to be the sharpest weapons for any side.

After the scores were tied for the ninth time at 22-22, Italy came to their first lead in the set, 23-22. China won two points back to narrow the gap at only one point behind, 24-23, hoping to kill the match point for the Italians. But a successful Italian block by two stopped a fast attack by Chinese spiker Zhang Jing, resulting a 25-23 win in the set and a match victory for the Europeans.

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