Turkey
Poland outclassed Italy 3-2 (21-25, 25-14, 19-25, 25-17 ,15-12) while Turkey defeated USA also in the tie-break (28-26, 25-19, 20-25, 24-26, 16-14).
Agnieszka Kakolewska produced a true captain’s performance who led Poland’s to the victory over Italy. She scored 21 points although the best scorer of the match was Malwina Smarzek with 28 points. Anastasia Guerra was persistent for Italy in a contest that could have gone either way and was locked at 12-12 in the fifth before Kakolewska and Smarzek combined for three straight points. Guerra racked up 15 points on attack and three more with intelligent serving, but her brave endeavors just fell short.
In the last match, Turkey barely defeated USA considering that they led 2-0 in sets and in the fourth set had 24-23. Three big blocks and a brutal spike from the 194cm middle blocker Zehra Gunes gave Turkey match point, only for some untimely nerves to allow the USA to turn a 24-23 deficit into a 26-24 set win.
Meryem Boz scored 17 points while Kimberly Hill 19 points.
“I don’t know when the last time Turkey beat the USA. I don’t think many times in the history of Turkish volleyball. We are just at the beginning of the tournament where every team is not really ready and making many experiments. But of course, this kind of match is difficult for this young group because we are facing one of the best teams in the world. We are leading 2-0, and even when they come back we were able to win the tiebreak. That means our team is mentally strong and did not give up, and that is the most important thing. In the fifth set, we didn’t make too many mistakes. Our serve worked really well, and our block worked really, really well and that was the difference” said Turkey’s head coach Giovanni Guidetti.
United States head coach Karch Kiraly said: “Turkey is a really good team. We are a good team. Battles like that will happen a lot. This was only match number two. I liked how our team responded down 2-0 and came storming back. We even had a swing to go up 15-14 but didn’t quite put it down on the floor. Turkey played really good volleyball and we are thankful because teams will bring a lot of good to us and that will make us better. Turkey played a very disciplined game. They are very well coach. They are young, they never stopped coming at us. We have a target on our chest and so those kinds of matches are good for us.”
To see complete results, stats, and standings, visit our Volleyball Nations League 2018 / Female page.
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