Italy downs Turkey 3-0 in women's volleyball worlds

Defending Championship Italy powered past Turkey 3-0 in Nagoya of Japan at the 2006 women's volleyball world championship on Friday.

Recovering from Tuesday's 1-3 defeat to Serbia and Montenegro, the Italians delivered the lowly Turkey 25-23, 25-17 and 25-14 in the Group D game.

Overcoming a slow start in the opening set, Italy easily took the following two sets as Turkey could hardly tear open the Italy's defense led by the 1.93-meter Elisa Togut, who led the team with 17 points.

Neslihan Darnel contributed to Turkey 18 points, but she could not get help from her teammates as the second scorer Ozlem Ozcelik had only 6 points.

Another powerhouse in the group Cuba also beat Egypt with a stylish straight-set win.

The Carribeans took just 53 minutes to win the game with 25-9, 25-9 and 25-15. Diaz Rosir Calderon scored 13 points for Cuba while Allegne Yanelis Santos had 10.

Ingy El Shamy led the Egypt team, she had five points in the game. Egypt coach Andres Martinez said: "I have a young and inexperienced team. They looked a bit nervous during the game. We have to admit our players are 50 percent weaker than the Cubans, physically."

The biggest dark horse of the tournament Serbia and Montenegro rolled over Peru 3-2 to qualify for the second round.

Serbia and Montenegro recovered from two sets down to overcome the South Americans by 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23. Ivana Djerisilo and Anja Spasojevic had 19 points each to lead the Serbia and Montenegro team, Vesna Citakovic scored 16 and Brizitka Molnar added 15.

In Sapporo, China and Russia both got their third straight win and will clash each other on Saturday. China defeated Mexico 3-0 to rank top of the Group B while Russia beat Germany 3-1.

2006 World Grand Prix champion Brazil faced a strong resistance from the Netherlands and took more than two hours to win the game with 25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 25-18 and 15-9 in Kobe.

Brazil now ranked first in the Group C together with the United States, who rallied past Cameroon 3-0 on Friday.

In Group A, host Japan had an easy win over Kenya with 25-15, 25-17, 25-10 and getting more closer to the second round as Japan had 5 points in three games in the group.

Japan's head Coach Shoichi Yanagimoto said: "This game was crucial because we lost the first match against Chinese Taipei, and from now on every game is very important. We must make a good rhythm in the next matches and there are still a lot of things to work on, specifically our blocking. The good thing at the current level is the skill of libero Sugayama and our serving."

Source: Xinhua