Turkey held off Germany for a four-set victory in Pool E
Long Beach, USA, June 18, 2016 – Turkey snagged a 3-1 (25-18, 16-25, 25-19, 25-19) victory over Germany on Saturday on the second day of FIVB World Grand Prix Pool E being held in Long Beach, California.
Polen Uslupehlivan paced Turkey with 17 points as her team had balanced scoring. Kubra Akman contributed 13 points in the victory. Gozde Yilmaz totaled 12 points after just starting the last two sets.
Germany’s Louisa Lippmann led her team in scoring with a match-high 21 points and Wiebke Silge added 11 points.
Turkey improves to to 3-2, while Germany falls to 0-5 through the fifth day of the overall FIVB World Grand Prix. Turkey concludes Pool E on Sunday against host USA at 17:00, while Germany challenges Japan at 15:00.
Turkey’s Yildirim scored the match’s first two points with aces and Uslupehlivan added a kill down the line for a 3-0 lead. Germany’s Lippmann topped down an overpass and Turkey hit wide to knot the score at 10-all. Turkey responded with three unanswered points to jump its lead back to three, 13-10. Baladin served an ace to lift Turkey to a 16-12 advantage at the second technical timeout, then the gap was raised to six points at 19-12 on a 5-0 run. Turkey closed out the set 25-17 on a German service error.
Germany reached the second set’s first technical timeout leading 8-4 following a 4-0 run that included an ace from Silge. The German block helped them move into a 16-10 advantage at the second technical timeout. Germany’s edge reached nine points at 24-15 before the set at 25-16. Lippmann scored six points in the set as Germany notched four blocks and three aces in the set.
With the third set tied at 5-all, Turkey scored three unanswered points for an 8-5 lead at the first technical timeout. Uslupehlivan hit a roll shot over the block for an 11-7 Turkey lead that was extended to 13-8. Germany answered with four straight to close to 13-12, only to have Turkey respond with three consecutive points to assume a 16-12 margin at the second technical timeout. Yildirim slammed a kill down the line and Germany committed an error to stretch the Turkey lead to 20-13. Mollers cut the gap to 22-19 with a deep kill, but consecutive German errors and a Yilmaz kill ended the set at 25-19.
Turkey rolled to a 7-4 lead in the fourth set that included a Uslupehlivan ace. Hanke tapped a shot over the Turkey block to close the gap to 9-8. Lippmann put up a block to knot the score at 11-all. Akman put up a block to again give Turkey a two-point cushion at 13-11. Germany thought it had tied the set at 13-all, but a successful video challenge was overruled by the referee to give Turkey a 14-12 lead and Aydiniar added a block on the next point.