Novo Mesto, Slovenia, July 11, 2014.  Turkey once again confirmed its superiority in Pool A of the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Women.  Having already qualified for the final, the Turks did not miss an opportunity to win their first match at Slovenia by 3:1 (26-24, 24-26, 25-23, 26-24).

However, all sets were quite tight and ended at a minimal advantage to one team or the other.  Great Turkish spikes and serves compensated for a well-performing Slovenian block in the first set.  The widest gap in the set was at 16-13 to Slovenia, but the Turks persevered in the end to win by 26-24.  In the second set, the Slovenes even went up to 20-15, but in the end, everything was up for grabs again at 24-24.  However, this time it was the home team that showed more character and took it by 26-24.  Turkey was ahead in the score through the most part of the third set.  Its lead, however, never exceeded three points. The visiting team won the set by 25-23 for 2:1 advantage in the match.  The fourth set was very similar to the third, but now it was time for the Turkish blockers to shine.  They contributed 6 points to the final 26-24, while Ezgi Dilik’s ankle injury after the second technical time-out did not stop Turkey from sealing the victory in the match.

Iza Mlakar’s 28 points that made her the best scorer of the match did not help Slovenia come out with any points from this game.  Turkey’s most prolific player Yeliz Basa finished with 16 points.

Bruno Najdic, head coach of Slovenia:  “The match was very equal, most of the time the two teams were only a point apart.  What bothers me only is those breaks that occurred because of problems with the scorer.  Those breaks broke the rhythm of our good game and we lost the lead several times.  Today we did not play optimally, so tomorrow I wish to show a better game.  We will try to win to get the second place in Pool A.  I am sure, no matter what happens tomorrow, that the girls will have shown that they can play good volleyball.”

Ferhat Akbas, head coach of Turkey:  “We need to start our sets better.  Catching up with the opponent is not so good for a game.  Today we played good volleyball, we tried our best.  The victory was also good as always.  This was a good preparation for the final.  We showed good team spirit.  We never give up.  In each match you have to win to keep this spirit.”

The two teams will meet again tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, at 18:00 local time at the Leon Stukelj sports hall in Novo Mesto.