Long Beach, USA, June 14, 2016 - Turkey face Japan to get the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 Group 1 tournament in the United States underway with a match too balanced to call.
Head-to-Head
• This will be the seventh encounter between Turkey and Japan at the World Grand Prix. Both teams have won three of their previous six meetings.
• The last time they met was at the 2014 World Grand Prix. Turkey won the first match in the preliminary round in straight sets, but Japan won the second match in the Final Six by the same score. Japan ultimately finished second behind Brazil, Turkey finished in fourth place.
• The last match between Turkey and Japan in any other world level tournament came at the 2010 World Championship, with Japan winning 3-1.
Turkey
• Turkey started their World Grand Prix campaign with a win over Belgium (3-0), but lost their last two matches against Netherlands (3-0) and Russia (3-2).
• Last year, they lost their first seven matches in the competition before winning their last two.
• Only Netherlands' Lonneke Sloetjes (68) scored more points in Group 1 than Polen Uslupehlivan (60).
• Nursevil Aydinlar scored 10 points from aces in the first three matches, most of all players in Group 1.
Japan
• Japan won their opening match at the 2016 World Grand Prix against Serbia (3-0), but lost their last two matches against Brazil (3-0) and Italy (3-2).
• That win against Serbia was Japan's only victory in their last 8 matches at the World Grand Prix.
• In Japan's last 11 matches in the competition, only their two matches against Italy (2015 and 2016) saw both teams winning multiple sets. Japan won twice by 3-0 and lost seven times in straight sets during this run.
• Sarina Koga has scored a team high 46 points in the first three matches.