05/01/2014 19:04
Turkey completes clean sweep to book ticket to 2014 Worlds
2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championship - Women
Ankara, Turkey, January 5, 2014. Turkey finished their home campaign at the World Champs qualifier – Pool I in Ankara with a perfect record after sweeping Romania in straight sets (25-15, 25-23, and 25-18) in 75 minutes on Sunday. The hosts did not lose any set in their three matches at the Baskent Volleyball Hall in Ankara to qualify to the Final Round of the 2014 FIVB Women’s World Championship.
Gözde Sonsirma Kirdar and Adina Salaoru top scored in this game for Turkey and Romania respectively with 13 points apiece.
After routing Cyprus and Ukraine in straight sets, Turkey started out strong also in their last game of the tournament leading the way 8:2 at the first technical time-out of the opening set. The hosts widened their lead to ten points at the second mandatory stop (16:6) and easily cruised to the final 25-15. Romania woke up in the early phases of the second set going up 4:2 and making it 8:5 at the first technical time-out. However, Turkey quickly fought their way back leveling the score at 12 all but once more Romania changed gear and got a margin of four points (19:15). Turkey responded with a series of four straight sets leveling the score at 19 all and after that showed the right composure to bring it home at 25-23. The third and last set was one-sided with Turkey leading the way right from the go (4:1, 8:4) before cruising to the final 25-18 to book their ticket to the 2014 Worlds.
“We played a good match and a good tournament” commented head coach Massimo Barbolini. “My players paid the right attention to every match. We are very happy that we got the right to play at the World Champs in Italy.”
Romania’s mentor Guillermo Gallardo said: “We played good only for 20 minutes in this match. It is a pity but this is true. Turkey has got a strong team and it was good for us to play at this level. We still have to work more.”
In the second match of the day, Ukraine routed Cyprus in straight sets (25-16, 25-12, and 25-13) to claim their first victory and end the tournament in third place. Iryna Trushkina and Nadiia Kodola top scored for the winning side with 11 points. Ukraine set the tone of the game right from the start opening with an 8:3 lead and comfortably pocketing the first set (25-16). The story of the game did not change also in the second set where Ukraine started out with a 5-0 run and quickly cashed the provisional 2:0 (25-12). The same story unfolded also in the third set where Ukraine dictated the tempo of the game at both technical time-outs (8:2, 16:13) finishing it off at 25-13 for a straight-set victory.
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