Santarelli guides Türkiye to win against his former team Serbia

The first battle between Italian coaches Daniele Santarelli and Giovanni Guidetti at the helm of their new national teams ended up with the former leading Türkiye to their second win in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 on Thursday.

Playing in front of more than 8,000 fans in Antalya, Santarelli’s players came from behind to secure a 3-1 (24-26, 25-17, 25-15, 25-21) win over reigning world champions Serbia and continue in great form at the start of the tournament.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

Santarelli was coaching Serbia up to as recently as last year, when he led them to their second world title, and was hired to replace Guidetti at the helm of the Sultans of the Net, with his compatriot taking the opposite route and going from Türkiye to Serbia in 2023. The coaches have also been involved in several battles at the club level, most notably at the CEV Champions League.

The connection between setter Cansu Özbay and opposite Melissa Vargas worked again for the Turkish, with the 23-year-old opposite leaving the court with 21 points (17 kills, three aces, one block) to her name in her second match with the team. Fellow opposite Ebrar Karakurt thrived on a ‘Supersub’ role once again, coming off the bench to deliver 14 points (nine kills, three aces, two blocks).

Thanks to Özbay’s excellent distribution, the team also saw three other players score in double digits in outside hitters Hande Baladin (13) and İlkin Aydin (12) and middle blocker Eda Erdem (12).

“It was the first time for me playing against Giovanni after several years,” Özbay, who’s also coached by Guidetti at her club VakifBank Istanbul, said. “I was a little nervous, but I just tried to focus on what I had to do and tried to forget who was on the other side of the court. Serbia have excellent players and they were doing very well on the court. We had control in the first set, but lost focus a little bit. Luckily that didn’t repeat over the match. Our mentality to never give up is one of our main strengths, we always believe we can win and play aggressively. Our teamwork was great and to win in this amazing atmosphere here in Antalya made it even nicer.”

Serbia had three players ending the match with ten or more points in 18-year-old Aleksandra Uzelac, with 13, and world champions Sara Lozo and Ana Bjelica, with 12 and ten, respectively.

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

The third day of the VNL 2023 in Antalya also had the second victory of Poland and the first triumph of Thailand in the fifth edition of the tournament. The Europeans, who had overcome Canada in the tie-breaker on Tuesday, got a solid 3-1 (21-25, 25-20, 25-14, 25-18) victory over defending champions Italy on Thursday.

Star opposite Magdalena Stysiak led the Polish victory with a match-high 24 points (22 kills, two blocks), followed by middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk and outside hitter Martyna Lukasik, who tallied 13 each. Opposite Sylvia Nwakalor produced 17 points for the Italians.

Thailand, who had fallen to Italy on the tie-breaker on Tuesday, were dominant against Canada, getting a sweep (25-17, 26-24, 25-21) to celebrate their first victory in the tournament. Outside hitters Wipawee Srithong and Chatchu-On Moksir carried the Thai offense with 18 and 17 points respectively, while Canada had middle blocker Layne Van Buskirk and outside hitter Alexa Gray as their top scorers with ten points apiece.

The fourth day of competition in Antalya, Friday will have three more matches, with Thailand and Poland battling at 14:00 local time (11:00 UTC), Canada and Korea meeting at 17:00 local time (14:00 UTC) and the United States and Italy ending the day at 20:00 local time (17:00 UTC).

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