USA defeated Turkey with 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-15, 15-7).
Top scorers: Boz 20, Erdem 20, Baladin 12, Gunes 11, Ismailoglu 7; Hill 20, Bartsch 18, Larson 15, Akinradewo 12, Dixon 10, Lloyd 7.
Turkey opened the match on the amazing way. They started with 16-10 and showed that they are ready to fight for each ball. Meryem Boz was unstoppable and thanks to good service of captain Eda Erdem Dundar they took the lead of 24-15. USA, with an attack of Akinradewo and ace of Kimberly Hill, saved two set balls but after an attack of Boz which ball went out of the court, the coach Giovanni Guidetti called the challenge and it showed that ball touched the block of TeTori Dixon. Turkey won the first set 25-17.
The second set started with the equal play of both teams and American girls came to the first lead of three points in this set at 11-8. Turkey tried to return points but USA started to play much better. They led 16-11 at the second technical timeout. With two service mistakes of USA and a block of Hande Baladin, Turkey came near 18-15. That forced coach Kiraly to ask for a coach time out. Boz scored her first point from the block for 18-16 but Hill stopped opponents with a new point. Point of Lloyd forced now coach Guidetti to ask for timeout (16-20). USA scored a new point for 21-16. After a double change in Turkey, the Balkan team came to 22-20 and Karch Kiraly called another timeout. TeTori Dixon won her first point in the match for 24-21 for USA. On the other side, Erdem scored the new point for her team (24-22) but Hill finished set 25-22.
It seems that Turkey don’t think to surrender. They opened the third set with 4-0. USA made few mistakes and that brought 8-6 for Turkey in the first TTO. Hill brought the first equalization to USA 9-9 but Erdem with good service and Boz on the net again brought Turkey the lead of +4 (13-9). Hill added the new point for USA for 14-13 but once again Erdem answered with the first attack. On the second TTO Turkey have 16-14. With two mistakes Turkey went on 18-14 which forced coach Kiraly for the time out. With ace of Zehra Gunes and thanks to mistakes of American players, Turkey came to 21-14 at the end of the set. Guidetti made a double change an that didn’t bring success. USA started to play better and that play brought 22-22! Service mistake of Kimberly Hill brought the new lead to Turkey 23-22 but Jordan Larson returned for 23-23. The American team came to the first set ball but Erdem scored for 24-24. The second ball is not used because Bartsch made mistake 25-25 but Dixon brought the new one (26-25). Boz saved another ball for Turkey and with the ace of Meliha Ismailoglu they came to the first set ball (27-26) which they used thanks to the mistake of Michelle Bartsch (28-26).
USA opened the fourth set with 7-3 but with two aces of Erdem, Turkey came to 7-6. American team with good attack came to 12-7 and after a timeout of coach Guidetti, Lloyd got a yellow card. Turkey scored two more points for 12-10 and this time USA asked for TO. In the sequel, America have come to the great advantage of 21-13 and with good play by Akinradewo and Larson to 24-15. With an ace, Lloyd won the last point of the USA in the set 25-15 for 2-2.
In the final set of the VNL 2018, USA had 11-5 and at that moment was sure that American girls will finish this match on their side. Dixon brought the match point for USA, but Gunes saved the first one. Alikaya made service mistake for 15-7 and 3-2 for USA.
To see complete results, stats, and standings, visit our Volleyball Nations League 2018 / Female page.
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at least turks made some people understand they are not so ‘weak’ 😀
It was just pure luck. This pathetic turkish team cannot compete with Brazil. We had lot of injuries.
Or they have a very good coach??!!