Italy and Poland are still alive in the women’s Volleyball Nations League 2024 and set to lock horns with one another in one of Saturday’s semifinals in Bangkok, starting at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC). A day after Japan and Brazil booked their spots in the other one, Poland and Italy upset defending VNL champions Türkiye and reigning Olympic champions USA, respectively, in Friday’s quarterfinals in Thailand.
VNL 2024
Both Olympic and VNL champs upset – Italy v Poland in VNL semis!
Türkiye dethroned in spectacular five-setter despite amazing 39 points from Vargas
Published 04:41, 21 Jun 2024
Poland’s Magdalena Stysiak in attack
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2024 live on VBTV
The last quarterfinal in Bangkok, between Poland and Türkiye, was the only one that was pushed beyond three sets to offer a thrilling five-set spectacle. Despite an out-of-this-world performance by Cuban-born Turkish star Melissa Vargas, the central Europeans celebrated as semifinalists after a hard-fought 3-2 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11) victory. Türkiye’s opposite hammered out an incredible 39 points, seven of which in blocking and another three from serving. She spiked at a 53% success rate to string up 29 kills, but that was not enough. With a brilliant captain Joanna Wolosz conducting the team, four of Poland’s players reached the double digits. Opposite Magdalena Stysiak led the way with 17 points (3 blocks, 2 aces), outside hitters Martyna Lukasik and 20-year-old Martyna Czyrnianska added 14 points each, while middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk finished with 13, including four blocks and three aces. Türkiye’s Ebrar Karakurt also scored 14 points.
The amazing Melissa Vargas
The five-set battle was crowned by a nail-biting tie-breaker, in which Türkiye fought back from a five-point deficit at 12-7 to get back to within one, but then Poland reacted with three in a row to close the game and celebrate their spot in the semis for the second time in history. They also did it last year and earned bronze, their first VNL medal.
“The thing is, we had too many injuries during this tournament. Even though I think we fought real hard today, they deserved it. They served better, they played good block-defence, they did a really good job in everything,” Türkiye’s middle blocker and captain Eda Erdem told VBTV after the game. “We are not ready. We know that. But the Olympics will be different, for sure. We have more than three weeks to tackle our weaknesses. This tournament didn’t go the way we wanted, but we are fighters and we will fight till the end.”
“Before the game we only thought that we just need to be together on the court and give our positive energy to every ball. We know how strong the national team of Türkiye is and I want to congratulate them! But I am so happy! It’s an amazing feeling! I know we are still not playing our best volleyball, but we won and this is the most important!” commented Stysiak. “Tomorrow it will not be easy, because we play against Italy, but for sure we will give 100%, have fun, play together and be happy for every point we take.”
The fans in Bangkok packed the arena again
In the first match of the day in Bangkok, Italy hammered out a 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-23) upset of reigning Olympic champions USA. While the North Americans outplayed the southern European in both spiking and serving, Italy did better in blocking. But what made the biggest difference in the match were the abundant unforced errors on the United States’ side (23 against 10 from the opponents), which tilted the balance heavily in favour of Italy; that and Italian star opposite Paola Egonu, who fired a match-high 20 points towards the victory, including the match winner. Egonu spiked at a 53% success rate and added two kill blocks and one ace to her tally. Outside hitter Myriam Sylla also reached the double digits with 10 points, while her American counterpart Avery Skinner led her team with 11.
It is only the second time in history Italy have qualified for the VNL semifinals. The first time was in 2022, when they went all the way to the top of podium.
Italy’s Paola Egonu spikes past USA’s Jordan Larson and Haleigh Washington’s block
“Italy is a great team. I had a long season facing a lot of these women and they are incredible,” USA’s outside hitter and captain Kelsey Robinson-Cook said after the match. “But I try to think about the positives. We were right there and it’s just inches. I am excited to have the time to work right now. I think it’s just about finding a little more consistency, picking a line-up and moving forward with it, and then training as hard as we can. I love coming to Bangkok. The fans are amazing! They love volleyball and you can feel it. It’s just such a special place to play. I hope we have crowds like that in America when we start our league…”
“I feel good, I am super happy and I am proud of the team, because we did some really good work and we showed a little bit,” said Myriam Sylla. “It wasn’t an amazing game, but the important thing was that we stayed together. And this is the thing that I love about the girls: we had fun and we enjoyed it. Of course, we want more. We will fight until the end for the final and after that…”
WATCH THE DRAWING OF LOTS FOR THE MEN’S OLYMPIC VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT AT PARIS 2024!
LIVE ON VOLLEYBALL WORLD YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
June 26, at 16:00 UTC
