Turkey won the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) women’s title after defeating China by 3-1 (25:22, 22:25, 25:19, 25:16) in Arlington, Texas. The Turkish national team became the VNL champion for the first time in history.
In the first two games, both teams managed to make long point streaks, with which they constantly exchanged the lead in the result. This logically led to a division of the games with an identical result in them of 25:22 each. However, Turkey stabilized its defensive play in the third game, in which it managed to lead with 16:9 points. The Chinese were unable to convert and trailed by 19:25.
In the fourth game, China led with 6:3 points, but Turkey responded with an 11:2 run, after which they took a 14:8 lead and guaranteed their way to the final success.
The top scorer for the winners was Melissa Vargas. The diagonal Fenerbahce finished with 26 points. Eda Erdem Dundar and Ebrar Karakurt each added 12 points for the team.
For China, Li Yingying finished with 21 points.
Daniele Santarelli led Turkey to the trophy in his first tournament as the team climbed to the top of the women’s volleyball world rankings.
