Trieste, Italy, September 27, 2014 – In front of 3,700 noisy spectators Brazil beat Turkey 3-2 (17-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-10) in Round 1, Pool B of the 2014 Women’s Volleyball World Championship at PalaTrieste on Saturday.
Key facts
- With Saturday’s five-setter Brazil stopped their row of three straight set victories.
- Brazil has now 11 points, having won all their four matches so far (against Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Turkey). Turkey has 5 points, having won one match against Canada and lost three (1-3 against Serbia and 2-3 against both Bulgaria and Brazil).
- In 126 World Championship matches, Brazil had never faced Turkey. The two countries recently met at the World Grand Prix with Turkey winning in five sets.
- It was Brazil’s 80th world championship victory. Only Russia (118) and Japan have won more (85).
- Brazil had 24 block kills tonight.
Top scorer was Turkey’s Gözde Sonsirma with 19 points. Double digits in the Turkish team also for Neriman Ozsoy (18) and Seda Tokatlioglu (16). On the Brazilian side the best scorer was Fabiana Claudino (17 points, 7 of which were kill blocks), followed by Jaqueline Pereira and Sheila Castro with 16 points each.
The start of the match was all for Turkey, with Brazil’s defense showing incredible disarray. The first technical timeout was at 8-2. At 10-2, Brazil finally started to cause some trouble in the opponent’s court with Jaqueline Pereira and Sheila Castro spiking hard. However, on the other side, Neriman Ozsoy and Kubra Akman had a great day and Turkey kept leading from a safe distance, gathering as much as a 10 points advantage. At 22-12, Brazil started reacting, but it was too late and soon it was set point. Good shots by Sheila and Jaque held off the defeat for a while, but then Gözde Sonsirma’s block wrote down a 25-17 victory for Turkey, who were simply harder, faster and stronger. It was the first set Brazil lost in this round.
And it was not going to be the only one.
The second set started with a more balanced play, but Akman’s flying spikes and blocks still kept Brazil at bay. An ace from Jaque finally brought Brazil into advantage 9-8, but Turkey closely followed and Seda Tokatlioglu and Neriman Ozsoy led them ahead again. Brazil just could not take control of the match. It was with some difficulty that they went up the ladder to 18-all. At this point, a block by Thaisa Menezes and a kill by Gabi Guimaraes created a lead for Brazil 20-18. It was a close fight. Nevertheless, at 22-all three consecutive block kills from Bahar Toksoy closed the set for Turkey 25-22.
The break gave Brazil a breather and in the third set they shot into a 6-2 lead, soon widened to 10-3. Kill blocks and spikes from Fabiana and a number of botched receives on the Turkish side wrote down a 16-7 score. The momentum for Turkey seemed over. Thaisa’s blocks and Jaque’s fierce spikes were unstoppable. But Turkey were not defeated yet. At 21-13, they signed five points in a row with an incredible Gözde Sonsirma dominating the net and got to 21-18. However, that was about it. Fabiana’s powerful kill wrapped the set 25-19.
The fourth set was a point-by-point fight, with neither team giving in and the players at their best: 14-all, 15-all, 17-all, 18-all. Blocks, kills, digs, dumps, dinks: there was impressive showing from both sides. No team had so fiercely opposed Brazil at PalaTrieste yet. This was volleyball at its best. Brazil finally managed to gather a lead 22-20 and then, due to a few Turkish errors, the set was theirs at 25-21.
The last set also started in a very balanced way. A monster Turkish spike sent Brait to the floor with its power and the court was changed at 8-5 for Turkey. Then Brazil had a row of five winning points and created a lead 10-8. The gap was difficult to fill for Turkey at this point. Tandara Caixeta earned Brazil the match point. The set was closed by Thaisa’s block kill at 15-10. In the last minutes, Brazil had scored ten points compared to the two by Turkey.