The FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Macao 2017, organized by the Sports Bureau of the Macao SAR Government and the Volleyball Association of Macao, China and presented by Galaxy Entertainment Group, concluded today (16 July) at the Macao Forum.  Italy capped their perfect weekend and won the Macao leg with a straight-set victory over Turkey, while China won an exciting encounter by three sets to two against the USA to claim second-place.

In the first match of the day, Italy barely broke a sweat and saw off Turkey in three swift sets (25-13, 25-20, 25-14).  The Italians were quick off the block with a combination of dominant display and mistakes from Turkey.  They maintained a healthy lead throughout to capture the first set.  Determined to put up a fight, the Turkish came out strongly in set two with Dicle Nur Babat’s swift and powerful spikes from the middle.  However, Italy managed to reach the first technical timeout with coach Davide Mazzanti’s successful block touch challenge. Italy then gradually extended their lead to conclude the set.  After that it was all one-way traffic; Italy’s Cristina Chirichella, Miryam Fatime Sylla and Paola Ogechi Egonu had a fair share of attack at the net to complete the victory and put Turkey out of misery.

Chirichella finished the match with 14 points, with Sylla and Egonu scoring 13 and 12 respectively. Turkey’s top scorer was Hande Baladin with 10 points.

Mazzanti was understandably pleased with his side’s display, “In terms of our team’s performance we played even better today than in the last two days.  The most important thing for us is that we managed to cut out some of the mistakes.”  Turkey’s coach Giovanni Guidetti was upset with his players’ lack of performance, “I am upset because there were times in the last two games against USA and China we played at a high level, but today we could not show what we are capable of.”

China then thrilled the home crowd with a spirit performance against the USA (25-27, 25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11), taking revenge for the 3-0 sweep by their opponents last week.

The teams started off with exciting rallies and took turns scoring points. Towards the end of the set, the Americans were more consistent with reception and attack which helped them secure the opener. China fought back well in set two, leveling the game with Gong Xianyu’s decisive blocks and attacks and Zhu Ting winning point. The third set was China’s owing to outstanding plays by Yuan Xingyue and Gong Xianyu.  However, the Chinese suffered a swing of momentum in the fourth set as the Americans regained their dominance with intelligent plays by Michelle Bartsch-Hackley and Madison Kingdon to force a decider. Both teams traded points at the beginning of set five, until Zhu Ting, Gong Xianyu and Yuan Xingyue scored consecutively to gain an upper hand and close out the match.

Yuan Xinyue scored 21 points followed by Zhu Ting with 19 for the victorious China.  USA’s Madison Kingdon scored match high 23 points and Kelly Murphy chipped in with 22.

China’s coach An Jiajie was satisfied with his team’s play, “This weekend Zhu Ting has done a great job recovering after every match and this is extremely critical for us as we prepared to combat the fast-paced and highly-intense playing style of the USA team.  Overall I think we improved a lot in our attack and defense and our spikers and middle-blocker did a tremendous job.”

The final standing of the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Macao 2017 is as follows: 1^st, Italy; 2^nd, China; 3^rd, USA; 4^th, Turkey.  China’s Zhu Ting was voted “My Favorite Galaxy Star Player” by fans.  In addition, individual awards were also presented to five players for their outstanding performance throughout the weekend:

• Best Setter: Carli Lloyd (USA)
• Best Middle Blocker: Yuan Xinyue (China)
• Best Opposite: Paola Ogechi Egonu (Italy)
• Best Outsider Spiker: Madison Kingdon (USA)
• Most Valuable Player: Ofelia Malinov (Italy)