Igor Gorgonzola Novara secured a valuable victory at the beginning of the Quarterfinal phase, beating Fenerbahçe Opet Istanbul on the Turkish soil in Burhan Felek hall. Both teams expected a big clash and delivered an exciting opening match of this phase of the tournament. The Turkish team was close to turn the match into a five-setter, leading throughout the fourth set, but the Italians found their way to seal the deal at the end of fourth set.

Fenerbahce put a pressure on Novara from the first moments, taking a four-point lead by the time they arrived at 16-12. The Turkish team remained cautious when Novara made a few attempts to decrease the point gap, as time out was called for Fenerbahce at 18-15. Two powerful attacks from Melissa Vargas and Brankica Mihajlovic changed the score to 21-16, giving Fenerbahce a boost to finish the set in their favour. Melissa Vargas lived up to her standard, giving her team the first set point opportunity, which Fenerbahce used winning the set 25-19. The opposite of the Turkish club scored 10 points in the opening set.

Novara wasted no time to bounce back against their Turkish opponent, going 3-7 ahead and forcing Fenerbahce to call an early time out in the second set. Micha Hancock delivered yet again with her precise serve as her two aces made it 6-15 for the Italians side and she only stepped down from the service line when Novara reached 6-18, putting Turkish in the difficult position to chase the score in this set. The Italian club tied the score, winning the set 12-25.

The third part began with a tight fight between both teams, as neither allowed their opponent to go too far ahead. Fenerbahce eventually found an edge over Novara, forcing the Italians to take a time out at 11-8. Novara quickly found a way back and a double block on Melissa Vargas brought Italians back to 12-11. This was just the beginning of Novara’s run as they continue putting a pressure on Fenerbahce, going 14-19 ahead. Another double block on Vargas gave Italians their first set point at 18-24 and Novara secured the set at 19-25.

Fenerbahce entered the fourth set, knowing this is their last chance to prolong the match and turn the result in their favour. The Turkish team opened the set with a 7-3 lead, but Novara yet again chased the score as Bosetti made it 12-11 with a great spike for Italians. Fenerbahce did not let Italians to repeat the story of the third set, as the Turkish maintained the two-point gap until 22-20, but Novara bounced back to level at 22-22. Fenerbahce called a time out and the tight fight followed, when both teams continued fighting point by point. Novara reached a match point at 25-26 and secured a victory when Melissa Vargas’s went long.

• Caterina Bosetti was named the best player of the match, scoring 18 points for Novara (16 winning spikes, 1 block and 2 ace)

• Melissa Vargas was undoubtedly the top scorer of the match, gaining 29 points for Fenerbahce (26 winning spikes, 2 blocks and 2 ace)

• Micha Hancock and Britt Herbots contributed 2 aces each for the Italian team

• Novara led in serve and block, scoring collectively 5 aces and 15 blocks to 2 aces and 10 blocks of Fenerbahce

• Nur Babat was the top scorer of the match with 3 blocks for Fenerbahce

Zoran Terzic, coach of Fenerbahçe Opet Istanbul: "First of all, congratulations to Novara, because they were very good tonight. They played with lot of energy, a lot of motivation. Defence was one of the elements that they played pretty well. We still have chance in İtaly and If we play our game we can win there.”

Caterina Bosetti, outside spiker of Igor Gorgonzola Novara: “We came here knowing it would be a difficult game, so we pushed a lot. At the beginning I think we were nervous but afterwards we better our block-defense relationship and we pushed a lot with our service. We are a very good team I think, but we have another game coming in Novara. We are happy, but we are focusing on the next game.”