Karakurt and Erdem help Türkiye get back on track

One day after they left the stadium in Ankara on a setback against China, the Türkiye fans got to celebrate again as they saw their country’s national team return to winning ways in the Volleyball Nations League 2022 on Saturday.

With inspired performances by star opposite Ebrar Karakurt and team captain Eda Erdem, Türkiye dominated Bulgaria to a straight-set (25-19, 25-21, 25-16) victory and delighted their home fans with their second triumph in three matches.

· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.

Karakurt was a force at the net, registering her second-straight match with 20 or more points in the VNL. The 22-year-old opposite was unstoppable in offence, converting 15 of her 25 hitting attempts (52%), and also produced a match-high five blocks.

Besides helping the team navigate the mental challenges of dealing with an upset, middle blocker Erdem was also productive in other ways, tallying eight kills, three blocks and two aces to leave the court with 13 points to her name.

“After the match against China, we knew we had to improve in our attack and our serve-receiving,” Erdem said. “Those are some of the things we missed last match, but we have all been training together for just a little over a week now, so it’s normal. It will be a long journey and today was important for us to show a good team performance. I’m really proud of my team and also really happy about this amazing atmosphere. It’s impossible not to try our best in front of these fans. They love us and we have a great connection, we consider them part of the team. These moments are priceless and we just want to make them and our country proud.”

Volleyball Nations League 2022: Full schedule and results

Karakurt started her productive night early on, hitting powerfully from a very difficult angle to score the second point for her team in the match at 2-2. Another of her key plays in the match came at the exact same moment in the second set, when she blocked Bulgarian Silvana Chauseva to get the fans out of their seats and even the set at two points for each side.

Erdem used her combination of power and finesse to thrive and scored off a smart tip from a slide set to give her team a three-point lead at 11-8 in the second set. She came up big a few plays later, blocking Nasya Dimitrova to tie the set at 20-20, a few moments before she scored an ace off the net to bring the score to 24-21 and virtually lock the Turkish second-set triumph.

Türkiye will be looking to send their fans home with smiles on their faces again on Sunday, when they play Belgium at 19.00 local time (16.00 GMT), in their last match in Ankara in the VNL Preliminary Round.

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