Japan - Italy (World Grand Prix 2013 Final Six, full match)

Japan beat Italy 3:0 (25:18, 25:19, 25:22) in the third match of the Final Round of the FIVB World Grand Prix in Sapporo on Wednesday. Japan and Italy are ranked third and fourth, respectively, on the FIVB world ranking and before Wednesday, Japan had only lost one of their last five World Grand Prix matches against Italy. Japan were led by Yukiko Ebata (16 points) and Saori Kimura (15), while Valentina Diouf scored 14 points for Italy. Japan’s coach and players said they had worked well in the week since the final qualifying round in Sendai.
Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe: "I knew the players were nervous because it was our first match so I’m happy for them that we won. After the Sendai round, we needed to think about how to improve and we had a week off that gave us plenty of time to think about our game, and things worked out really well".

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