Türkiye celebrated their first win at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022. After suffering an upset at the hands of Thailand in their first Pool B match in Arnhem, the Turks bounced back with a convincing 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-13) victory over Korea on Tuesday in the first game of the tournament played at Gdansk’s Ergo Arena in Poland.
Women's World Championship 2022
Türkiye score first World Championship win
16 kill blocks and 10 aces contribute to emphatic victory over Korea
Published 02:01, 27 Sept 2022
Türkiye’s Hande Baladin serving
Ahead of the other second-round matches in the pool to be played later on Tuesday - Dominican Republic vs Croatia at 17:30 local time (15:30 GMT) and Poland vs Thailand at 20:30 (18:30) - Türkiye climbed to the top of the current Pool B standings on a 1-1 win-loss record and four points, followed by the Dominicans and the Poles wit three points each, and the Thais with two. The top four teams from each of the four round-robin pools will advance to the second pool phase of the tournament.
· Watch all FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
Türkiye outplayed their opponents emphatically in every scoring element of the game. They tallied as many as 16 kill blocks and 10 aces towards the victory. Spiking at a 55% success rate, outside hitter Saliha Sahin produced the match high of 17 points, including three blocks and three aces. Opposite Ebrar Karakurt mounted seven kill blocks towards a total tally of 16 points, also including two aces. Setter Cansu Ozbay was on fire too; in addition to taking care of her playmaking duties, she scored three points of her own – a spike, a block and three aces.
A back-row hit by Sahin delivered the first point of the World Championship at the Ergo Arena and jump-started a 4-0 run that Türkiye stormed into the match on. The gap went as wide as six points at 8-2, but when middle blocker Lee Dahyeon went to the serving line, she aced for 8-4, a break point that gave momentum to a Korean comeback, which, however, only brought them to within one point at 13-12. With Ozbay chipping in with a couple of aces (3-0, 15-12) and Karakurt leading the way with eight points, Türkiye dominated the first set. Karakurt attacked down the line to bring in set point at 24-14 and converted it herself with a cross-court swing for 25-14.
Türkiye celebrate
Lee aced again for Korea to get the second set underway and outside Pyo Seungju followed up with a successful attack for a 2-0 lead. Türkiye reacted swiftly with seven points in a row and never looked back. They hammered another three aces (Karakurt for 11-4, middle blocker and captain Eda Erdem for 17-7, and Ozbay for 19-8) and as many as seven kill blocks in the set before Karakurt hit the 25-13 winner.
Türkiye got the early lead in the third set until Korean middle Lee Juah scored directly from the end line to level play at 4-4, for the last time in the match. After 6-5, the Turks went on a brilliant 11-point run to 17-5, which included three aces by Sahin. Coach Giovanni Guidetti made several substitutions in the process, to give some of his backup players time on the court, and they did not disappoint cruising on to the victory. One of them, outside Derya Cebecioglu aced for 22-10 on the way to the final 25-13, shaped up by a service error from Korea.
“We lost our first game against a very good team, but today I’m happy that we won, because we needed this victory,” said Ozbay after the match. “We have many games ahead of us and I think this win will give us more confidence to do the normal things that we couldn’t do in our first game. It finished very quickly, so we have more time before tomorrow’s very important game. The Dominican Republic have very good players and are playing really well, so we have to be very focused on every detail of the game, but I think we will win.”
Türkiye’s next match is scheduled at 17:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday against the Dominican Republic, while hosts Poland entertain Korea later in the day, at 20:30 (18:30).
Tuesday’s programme at the World Championship also includes three games in Arnhem. The Pool D encounter between China and Colombia has already finished with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-16) victory for the Asian side. In Pool A, Italy take on Belgium at 18:00 (16:00) and Cameroon face Kenya at 20:00 (18:00).
