Another edition of one of volleyball’s most exciting women’s rivalries is coming up in Brasilia on Friday. European powers Serbia and Türkiye will lock horns in the second match on the day’s Volleyball Nations League 2022 programme in the Brazilian capital, starting at 18:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
VNL 2022
Serbia v Türkiye: Balkan rivalry’s next match coming up
Published 05:18, 17 Jun 2022
· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
On Thursday, Serbia persevered through a super long set that lasted 78 rallies to claim a 3-0 (40-38, 25-22, 25-22) victory over Korea and improve to a 4-2 win-loss record and 12 points. They stand fifth in the race for the spots at the Finals in Ankara next month. Finals hosts Türkiye, on the other hand, are coming into the all-Balkan clash from a four-set loss to Brazil, with a record of three wins in five matches and nine points. They are ninth in the current standings.
It will be the 14th encounter between Serbia (including predecessors) and Türkiye at major world-level competitions. Türkiye won seven of the previous 13 games, including the last three of their four VNL meetings. They have also met 10 times at the CEV European Championships, where the Serbs lead 8-2 in the series. As many as five of their eight most recent matches were resolved in tie-breaker sets, and only one match finished in straight sets.
In their opening VNL 2021 game, Türkiye produced a narrow 3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25, 16-14) victory with Meryem Boz, Ebrar Karakurt and captain Eda Erdem leading the way with 17, 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Serbia’s Sara Caric delivered the match high of 22. Türkiye went on to qualify for the Finals on an 11-4 win-loss record in the Preliminary Round and eventually celebrated with the VNL bronze, while their middle blocker Eda was named on the Dream Team. Their opponents finished 13th on 4-11.
Both teams played at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but did not cross ways there. Serbia won bronze in the Japanese capital, while Türkiye finished fifth.
In their most recent encounter, Serbia entertained Türkiye in a EuroVolley 2021 semifinal in Belgrade and mastered a hard-fought 3-1 (32-34, 28-26, 25-23, 25-13) victory. The hosts went on to earn the silver medals, while Giovanni Guidetti’s squad took the bronze.
Maja Aleksic in action against Korea
Six players from that Serbian EuroVolley squad are currently in coach Daniele Santarelli’s group for the week in Brasilia. They include setter Sladjana Mirkovic, opposite Ana Bjelica, outside hitters Bianka Busa, Katarina Lazovic and Bojana Milenkovic, and middle blocker Jovana Kocic, in addition to middle blocker Maja Aleksic from their Olympic bronze medal team. The latter is the second best blocker of the VNL so far with 24 stuffs to her name.
Meanwhile, as many as nine of Türkiye’s 12 Olympians and 10 of their 14 EuroVolley bronze medallists have travelled to the Brazilian capital, with stars including Eda Erdem, Ebrar Karakurt, middle Zehra Gunes and outsides Hande Baladin, Tugba Senoglu and Meliha Ismailoglu, to name a few.
Before the two teams travel to Calgary for the last competition week of the 2022 Preliminary Round, Serbia will also play against the hosts in their last game in Brasilia on Sunday, while Türkiye have a game in hand and will meet Germany on Saturday and Korea on Sunday.
Friday’s programme in Brasilia also includes encounters between Germany and Italy and between the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic. The day has already started in the other pool in Quezon City with the defending champions USA shutting out Poland. China will meet Canada and Japan will face Thailand.
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