Volleyball: International friendly-Arsu power past Mondial Quartirolo |20 June 2006

After losing 1-3 (18-25 20-25 25-22 23-25) to Cascade Wednesday June 14, Mondial Quartirolo’s coach Andrea Marinello told Sports Nation that his team’s game would improve in the second friendly encounter against Arsu last Saturday. Instead they lost once again, this time on a 3-0 score and in less than an hour.

Coach Julian Onezime’s Arsu displayed their strength at the net with some hard smashes, giving their opponents no chance at all.

After easily winning the first two sets 25-14 and 25-11 in a combined 35 minutes, Arsu, who gave a debut to former Cascade players Teryl Songoire and Joselle Labrosse, were too casual in the third set and Mondial Quartirolo asserted some early pressure.

Probably thinking that they could steal the set like they did against Cascade, the visitors tried to surprise Arsu with their technical play, leading 5-0, 11-6, 14-8, 16-12 before the Seychelles champions equalised at 16-16.

Arsu took the lead for the first time in the set at 23-22 on a Songoire block but they could only wrap up the match on a 26-24 score after 21 minutes of play.

Arsu’s coach Onezime told Sports Nation that although the match looked easy, Mondial Quartirolo provided his team with the opportunity to play a technical side and “my players, even the newcomers, were up to the task.”

As for Italian Serie D side Mondial Quatirolo’s coach Marinello, he said he was disappointed with his team’s performance as he had expected his players to come out and play hard.

“To be frank, we under-estimated the level of women’s volleyball here. Cascade and Arsu displayed good organisation on the court and there are some very talented players around here. We will return next year with a better team,” he said.

Coach Marinello added that when the country’s women’s national team visit Italy in May next year, they are to participate in a tournament involving teams from hosts Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and England.

G. G.