VNL 2025

Korneluk drives Poland to double-comeback win over Netherlands

Vargas and Baladin lead the way as Turkiye deals with fighting Dominicans in straight sets

Published 07:07, 18 Jun 2025

Netherlands (NED) vs. Poland (POL) women - Pool 6 - Preliminary Phase #47563096

Agnieszka Korneluk celebrates with her Polish teammates

In the fourth five-setter of the first day of the second competition week in the women’s Volleyball Nations League, Poland came back from a set down twice against the Netherlands and eventually celebrated their fourth win, lifting them to a 4-1 win-loss record and 12 points in third place of the current VNL standings. With the point earned in Belgrade on Wednesday, the Dutch are eighth on 2-3 and 8. In the last match of the day in Istanbul, the Dominican Republic put up quite a fight against Turkiye, but inspired by the noisy crowd on the stands, the home team got the job done in straight sets to stay undefeated on 5-0 and 13 in third place. The Caribbean Queens are in 12^th place on 2-3 and 4.

Watch the Volleyball Nations League on VBTV

The Netherlands were well on their way to surprise the bronze medalists of the previous two VNL editions buy dominating sets one and three, but Poland stopped them short of producing a surprise and turned the course of the match to a 3-2 (17-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-12, 15-10) victory.

Star middle blocker and captain Agnieszka Korneluk acted as the team’s true leader and produced a match-high 19 points. She spiked at a success rate of 67%, raised four kill blocks and garnished that with an ace. Opposite Malwina Smarzek contributed another 17 points towards Poland’s victory.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Volleyball Nations League (@volleyballnationsleague)

“For sure, it was a difficult game for us. The beginning was really bad, but in the end we won. Let’s say that we found our rhythm of play, but we have a lot to improve,” Korneluk told VBTV after the match. “But the most important is that we won. We know we can play much better and we plan to show it tomorrow.”

21-year-old Dutch opposite Elles Dambrink led her team with 18 points. 22-year-old middle Britte Stuut and 20-year-old outside hitter Helena Kok also reached the double digits with 12 and 10, respectively.

Over in Istanbul, the Dominican Republic pushed mighty Turkiye to overtime in two of the sets, but the home team managed to close the match in straight sets, 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 28-26). Cuban-born opposite Melissa Vargas fired three aces and put up one kill block towards a team-high 16 points, which also included Turkiye’s last two points of the match, after they denied a Dominican set point. Outside hitters Hande Baladin and Yaprak Erkek chipped in with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Dominican Republic’s opposite Gaila Gonzalez was the best scorer of the match with 19 points. Outside Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez added another 11.

“I would just like to thank all the fans here. It is really so nice to play here, in front of our home crowd. We felt all this great energy from the beginning till the end and I am so happy! I really missed playing in front of our supporters. It was incredible!” Baladin said.