Italy sails into women's volleyball final with easy three-set win over Turkiye

Italy athletes look on prior to a Women

Italy athletes look on prior to a Women’s Semifinals match against Team Türkiye on day thirteen of the Paris Olympic Games – Credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Italy and Turkiye entered the Olympics as both the last two Volleyball Nations League champions and teams seeking their first Olympic medal in women’s volleyball.

Both have recently become powerhouses in the sport and were looking to cement themselves among the world’s elite teams.

They met earlier in the tournament in pool play and Italy absolutely dominated in a straight-sets win, and the story was the same tonight. The Italians cruised in three sets to guarantee themselves a first ever Olympic medal, and will be hoping to make it gold against Team USA.

MATCH STATS

Set 1 — Italy 25, Turkiye 22

It was Turkiye that got off to a fast start early, taking a 9-6 lead, but Italy quickly answered back and took control of the set late.

The Italians did it by jumping on the back of Paola Egechi Ognu, who made a statment with an 11-point first set on 11/16 swings. The Italian star was nearly unstoppable and she carried her team to what turned into a comfrotable 25-22 win.

Set 2 — Italy 25, Turkiye 19

Italy imposed its will in the second set with a dominant 25-19 victory. Egonu added six points but was much less efficient (just 4/11 swings), but the team around her did enough on offense to make things easy in the second set.

At this point, a repeat of the pool play matchup between these teams looked on. Italy were flying and Turkiye simply had no answers for Egonu and the Italian attack.

Set 2 — Italy 25, Turkiye 22

Up against the ropes, Turkiye had the early advantage in the third set and held a comfortable advantage throughout the middle part of the set.

The Turks held an 18-15 lead when everything changed. Italy chipped away and got the set tied at 20, then took off running from there. Italy went on a 10-4 run the rest of the way to put the nail in the coffin and send itself to the gold medal match.

Egonu was tremendous in the third, scoring seven points, but it was Sarah Luisa Fahr who really shined. She scored seven of her nine points in the third set, and did it on 3/4 swings with four blocks.

Italy was just simply too much to handle, and overpowered Turkey on its way to its first ever Olympic final.