Three weeks of qualifying on different continents, four days of the “Final Eight” in American Arlington, and a month later, the group stage leaders USA and Poland converge on the title match. Turkish volleyball players in the less obvious final still take the first Nations League trophy – 3:1 (25:22, 22:25, 25:19, 25:16).
spectacular bunch
The team of the young specialist Daniele Santarelli dominated almost all positions: service (8-4) and blocking (14-5). Already at the beginning, the Turks crushed their rivals in the net: if it was not possible to close with a block, then they caught and raised the ball in defense. The game was even until the middle of the game, and then Melissa Vargas’s shot with a score of 13:15, Ebrer Karakurt’s discount attack, and the Chinese women’s advantage smoothly flowed into the hands of the Turkish women. It was this union, Karakurt and Vargas, that became decisive in many ways in the Final Eight for the team: Melissa was placed on the diagonal, and Ebrar, who usually attacks from the second zone, was placed on the wing.
In this position in the final, Vargas executed 21 of 39 attacks (54%), also making three aces and two blocks. And since this season, the debutant of Kaliningrad Lokomotiv Ebrar in the Final Eight became the second scorer of the team, adding 35 points with 30% execution of attacks.
melissa vargas
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Coach Santarelli was then asked how he was able to unite such ambitious and offensive volleyball players and persuade Ebrar to commit. “First of all, they are fighting for the same cause. I’m sure Ebrard understood that Melissa was great. When I spoke to her, she was convinced that this was a new challenge. Ebrar showed a great attitude in this situation. The girls work together to achieve a certain goal. That’s why we feel strong.”
It was Vargas’ strike from the block outside the second zone that gave Turkey the opening set. The second started in the same way, with the advantage of the Turkish women. They were always ahead and gave impeccable segments: 7:4, 10:6, 14:10. Therefore, it was difficult to imagine how the Chinese could win back, if not the match of a lifetime for Chinese striker Yingying Li. But chance intervened.
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At 12:14 it seemed that the Chinese played a ball into the net on the opponents’ side – which is prohibited by the rules – and scored the ball. The Turkish coach wanted to take on the challenge, but they did not give up for it. The moment became decisive, followed by a block, a high ball in defense and an attack by Yingying, and Ebrer’s strike went wide. China took the lead 16:15. Ace Lee with a score of 21:18 and a pipe on the triple block from the same diagonal became decisive in the girls’ path to victory in the second set. With the same hit from the baseline, Yingying closed the game: the girl then placed nine balls in the attack.
yingying lee
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But due to the attacking actions of No. 12 alone, the third and fourth deliveries could not be physically brought out: Vargas ignited the cannon and scored 16 balls, Erdem eight and Karakurt seven. Derya Cebecioglu with 10 points often gave fire in the attack of a substitute; this was enough to finish the match in four games, practically depriving the audience of a close fight at the end: 25:22, 22:25, 25:19, 25:16.
coaching debut
It’s amazing how quickly Santarelli managed to mold Turkish women’s champions. Most recently, Daniele coached in the Italian A1 series, then raced for the Croatian and Serbian national teams. And only from 2023 he took the post of head in the Turkish national team. With a relatively young roster, nothing will stop him from completing successfully through at least 2028.
“We are doing a good job, but this is not the end. We won this tournament, but from now on it will be more difficult. I have a lot of confidence in this team and its players. I also believe in my decision to dedicate myself to the Turkish team. This is just my first step in a long journey with these girls, very happy with this start, ”he said after the victory.
“We prepared well as a team, on the way here Dani just told us: ‘Girls, we’re going there just to be champions, and not just to play in the final.’ We believed in it, we have been working on it since day one,” said team captain Eda Erdem after the award ceremony.
Tournament Stars
On the way to the title in the final stage, the Turkish women beat rivals from Italy (3:0) and the United States (3:1). In the group stage, the team finished third, winning 9 of 12 matches. Turkey now has a full set of League of Nations medals. In 2018, the team took silver, in 2021, bronze. China also did better. Previously, the Asian women claimed bronze twice in 2018 and 2019. For the first time, Poland also stood on the podium, taking third place from the United States in a team that, after three consecutive Nations League victories, did not he put two times in a row in the palmares.
tournament heroes MVP: Melissa Vargas (Turkey) Setter: Linyu Diao (China) Winger: Melissa Vargas (Turkey) Blockers: Zehra Gunesh (Turkey), Xinyue Yuan (China) Finisher: Yingying Li (China), Martina Lukasik (Poland) Libero: Gizem Orge (Turkey)
Thanks to the victory of the Turkish team in the League of Nations, Santarelli’s team was one hundredth ahead of the Americans in the fight for leadership in the world ranking, from which the teams of Russia and Belarus were temporarily eliminated during this lottery.
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World Ranking: 1. Turkey 358.49 2. America 358.45 3. Italy 354 4. China 352 5. Brazil 346 6. Serbia 345 7. Poland 315
