FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championships Recap: Tuesday's Pool D matches
The first round of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball Women's Volleyball World Championship is underway in Japan. Four teams from each of the four pools will advance to the second round, and two
teams will be eliminated. Each team still has one game left, but the top four in Pool D have already been determined.
Pool D
Turkey vs Canada
Turkey officially eliminated Canada, and clinched a spot in the second round with a close 3-2 (19-25 20-25 25-14 25-17 15-8) victory. Canada looked poised to win the match and keep their hopes alive after
taking a 2-0 set lead, but an impressive comeback by Turkey was the story of this match. Turkey improved their record to 3-1 while Canada fell to 0-4.
Neslihan Darnel was the top scorer for Turkey with 25 points, and Sarah Pavan lead the Canadians with 17.
“Our goal for the tournament was to improve with every match and we have done that,” said Canada’s coach, Arnd Ludwig. “We lost focus in the third set. I am proud of the effort my team has shown here.”
Canada will face the 0-4 Dominican Republic on Wednesday in a battle to avoid last place, and Turkey will face Korea. If Turkey wins they’ll be guaranteed second place, and can still finish in first if
Russia loses to China.
Russia vs Korea
Russia improved to 4-0 with a 3-1 (25-18 25-17 19-25 25-22) victory over Korea, who saw their record fall to 3-1. The defending champion Russian team will face China on Wednesday, and still needs a victory
to clinch first spot in the Pool.
Tatiana Kosheleva led the Russian team with 22 points, and Song-Yi Han and Young-Joo Hwang led Korea with 15 points each.
“I'm not too happy. There are two ways to play. One is beautifully while losing, the other is not beautiful but winning,” said the Russian coach, Vladimir Kuzyutkin. “Today it was the latter for us. We
followed our rules and principles. I was worried about this match coming into it and am relieved that we won.”
Dominican Republic vs China
China clinched a spot in the second round with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-21, 25-14) victory over the Dominican Republic. The win improved their record to 2-2, and they can still move up from fourth place with a
victory, and a Korea loss. They’re trailing Korea in the tie-breaker (most points for), but by only 17 points.
Wang Yimei led the Chinese with 13 points, and Prisilla Rivera led the Dominican team with 10.
China was pleased to earn the victory, and clinch a spot in the second round after surprising losses to Korea and Turkey in earlier first-round matches.
“It was unimaginable the amount of pressure we were facing in this match,” said China’s coach, Yue Juemin. “We played hot as a team tonight. We were forceful and strong.”
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