Türkiye sink Thailand and advance to the Finals

A very strong Turkish performance on Thursday, in Bangkok, ended Thailand’s dream of returning to the Volleyball Nations League Finals in 2023, silencing a sold-out Hua Mark Indoor Stadium.

Coming from a five-set loss to Japan on Wednesday, Türkiye responded strongly, securing a 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-20) win over the Thais to get back on track on the VNL 2023.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

The result brought opposite consequences to the teams as, while the Turkish moved up to third place with seven wins (23 points) and are guaranteed in the VNL Finals, the Thais remain in 13^th place and, with just two wins (eight points) and two more matches to play in the Preliminary Phase, can no longer make the trip to Arlington, USA, in two weeks.

Outside hitter Derya Cebecioglu had her best performance in the VNL 2023, leading the Turkish victory with 13 points – 12 kills and one block.

“Every win is very important and we’re very happy about this one,” the 22-year-old outside hitter commented. “Especially after yesterday’s loss, it feels very good to win today. Japan and Thailand play very fast, so yesterday’s match helped us prepare for what we would find today. We have two big matches ahead of us already and we want to win them. We’ll need to be fully concentrated to do it.”

Turkish captain Eda Erdem also reached double digits in scoring with 12 points (eight kills, four blocks), while fellow middle blocker Zehra Gunes and outside hitter Ilkin Aydin contributed nine points each.

Thailand got 15 points from their middle blocker duo, with Thatdao Nuekjang leading the team with nine (seven kills, two blocks) and Hattaya Bamrungsuk adding another six (five kills, one ace).

The team stats left no questions about Türkiye’s dominant performance as the Europeans outscored the Asians in kills (38 to 32), blocks (14 to five), aces (four to two) and opponent errors (19 to 11).

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

Two other matches were played in Bangkok on Thursday ahead of the duel between Türkiye and Thailand and in the first of them, the Netherlands defeated Croatia 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-15) to keep their hopes of making it to the VNL Finals alive – the Dutch are tenth, with four wins (14 points).

Middle blocker Indy Baijens stood out in the Dutch victory, getting 16 points, with nine kills, two aces and five blocks – opposite Celeste Plak and outside hitter Jolien Knollema also reached double digits in scoring, with 13 and 12 points respectively. Middle blocker Martina Šamadan was Croatia’s main offensive weapon, with 11 points.

In the second match of the day, Canada stunned Brazil with a 3-2 (28-30, 25-22, 25-23, 21-25, 17-15) victory that pushed them into the VNL Finals qualification zone, in eighth place, with five wins (15 points).

Star outside hitter and team captain Alexa Gray delivered 25 points (22 kills, one ace, two blocks) for Canada, being immensely helped by opposite Kiera Van Ryk, who added another 19 points. Brazilian captain Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães had her second match with 20+ points in two appearances in the VNL 2023, registering 20 points (19 kills, one block) for the South Americans.

Friday’s match schedule in Bangkok will feature three matches, all with heavy implications in the race for the remaining five spots in the VNL 2023 Finals. The day begins at 13:00 local time (06:00 UTC) with the duel between Canada and Italy, continues at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC), with the encounter involving the Netherlands and Japan, and ends at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC) with the clash between Brazil and Türkiye.

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