Japan finish strong and beat Türkiye in the quarterfinals

Japan are set to represent Asia in the Volleyball Nations League 2025 Final Four over the weekend after they took down European champions Türkiye in the tournament’s quarterfinals on Thursday, in Łódź, Poland.

Asians and Europeans featured in an exciting five-set battle to start the second day of the VNL Finals at the Atlas Arena and, led by Turkish head coach Ferhat Akbaş, the Japanese benefited from a strong start in the tie-breaker to come out on top 3-2 (25-21, 16-21, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9) and continue on path to win a medal in the tournament for a second-straight season.

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The silver medalists of the VNL 2024, the Japanese now wait for the outcome of the fourth and last quarterfinal duel, involving Brazil and Germany and scheduled to start at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Thursday, to know their opponents in the semifinals, on Saturday, at 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

Captain Mayu Ishikawa was a scoring force for the Japanese, leading the Asian side with 19 points (17 kills, two aces) and scoring the game-winning point from the service line. Opposite Yukiko Wada and outside hitter Yoshino Sato also had strong performances, with each contributing 15 points in the team’s victory.

“We’re very happy to have won such an important match,” setter Nanami Seki remarked. “We knew it was going to be a tough match, so we tried to focus on our side and bring our best game to the court. We’re very happy to be in the semifinals, but we have a chance to win a medal, and we’ll fight for it.”

Türkiye had the match’s top scorer in star opposite Melissa Vargas, who delivered 23 points (19 kills, four blocks), and got another 17 (14 kills, two aces, one block) from outside hitter Yaprak Erkek. Middle blockers Zehra Güneş and Aslı Kalaç registered 11 points each for the Sultans of the Net.

“I thought we played well, but Japan are a very good team and also played very well today,” setter Cansy Özbay reacted. “We couldn’t quite figure their offense out, and, in some moments, didn’t know where their attack was coming from. We fought a lot, but this is not our game, and we don’t accept playing like this. We had some injuries during the VNL and couldn’t have our full team together, but I hope we can play better at the World Championship.”

Japan was more efficient offensively, outscoring Türkiye in kills (61 to 57), and were also more aggressive from the service line, firing five aces to the Europeans’ two. The Turkish had the most blocks (13 to six), but gave up more points in errors (31 to 28).

Japan are now set to compete in the VNL semifinals for the third time in seven appearances in the tournament. They finished fourth in 2021 and took silver last year.

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

The other semifinal, which is scheduled to start at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Saturday, will reunite defending champions Italy, which swept the United States in the first quarterfinal on Wednesday, and hosts Poland, which eliminated China in a five-set battle on the same day.

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