Turkey grabs first victory in the 2012 London Olympics – Volleyball News
Turkey women’s volleyball team defeated Serbia on Wednesday at the Earls Court and scored first win at the 2012 London Olympics.
Turks sent 25-20, 25-12, and 25-21 on board, in order to earn the winning status in the match. Ladies around Head Coach Motta put up a valiant effort and shook off the bad impression. On the other hand, Serbian team dropped another chance to break the ice
and remained without any win in the competition.
Turkey’s Gözde Sonsirma and Neslihan Darnel proved their potential and led the team in scores. They added 14 points apiece and emerged as the only two players in Turkish team with double digits.
Brankica Mihajlovic struggled for Serbia and ended with 10 points.
The match started out in a moderate way. Turks formed different combinations and tried to find the right rhythm, while Serbia did the same and tried to settle down. Gradually, the game picked pace and both teams exchanged long rallies. Turks got better as
Neslihan Darnel hit some exquisite shots. Serbia lagged behind and gave the first set to Turkey with five points (25-20).
With one-set victory in hand, Turkey jumped to an early lead in the following set. Turks hit with power and made successful attack attempts. The gap of scores stretched out and Serbia got into trouble. Turkey continued with success and claimed second set
at 25-12.
Third set also ended in Turkey’s favour, which sent Serbia to straight-sets loss.
Marco Aurelio Motta, the Turkish mentor, seemed delight about his team’s success. He talked about the match and recapped Turkey’s performance in previous matches in the following manner: “All matches have a different story and in this group all teams can
beat each other. In the first match with Brazil we gave away too many points while the group played more balanced on Monday against China. As for Serbia, they have quite many players injured at the moment. We play them quite often; today we fought our best”.
His Serbian counterpart Zoran Terzic commented: “We have played a lot of times against Turkey and they are always difficult and interesting games. Today, what can I say - when you come to the Olympics and lose all your opening games it is disappointing”.
In the next run, Turkey is scheduled to take on South Korea. The Korean team has one of the best players of the tournament in the form of Kim Yeon-Koung. Turks will have to work really hard, in order to cope with the power of Koreans.
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