Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 12, 2016 – In a breathtaking battle Italy beat Japan 3-2 (25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-27, 15-8) with an outstanding performance by Paola Egonu who scored 30 points.
Marco Bonitta, Italy, Coach: "We are in the beginning of the Grand Prix so we tried a new system, with new players, and I am sure that we had a good profit with these experiences. We will make better and better week by week, that is natural."
Masayoshi Manabe, Japan, Coach: "Italy is a good team and today our reception was our weakness. That made some difference in their favor. In the sets that we made fewer mistakes, we won."
Paola Egonu, Italy, player: "It was a very good game. We imagined that we could defeat Japan 3-0, but we faced a great adversary. However, we finally had a good tiebreak. I am very happy; I think we played very good today."
Yukiko Ebata, Japan, player: "I left the court with the sensation that we could have won that match. Unfortunately, we made many mistakes. The Italian block is very tall and we faced some difficulties to overcome it. Our reception did not work as well as we used to."