The Turkish sextet, sixth in the world ranking, achieved this Wednesday an agonizing 3-2 victory over the Dominican Republic (21-25, 25-21, 25-18, 16-25 and 15-13), which lasted more than two hours and 25 minutes, corresponding to Group B, in the World Volleyball Championship that is played here and in the Netherlands.
With their defeat, the Caribeñas, eighth in the world ranking, lost their undefeated 2-0 record and now have a 2-1 record and also saw a streak of 13 consecutive wins in different competitions broken.
The winners’ attack was led by the veteran Ebrar Karakurt with 26 points, several of them in the fifth and decisive sets that were key to Turkey’s victory. Another who contributed was Zehra Gunes with 11 points.
While for the Dominican Republic, Gaila González was the best with 19 points, Brayelin Martínez contributed 18 and Yonkaira Peña with nine.
This Thursday against Poland
The Creole team will play this Thursday at 2:30 in the afternoon (Dominican time) against the hosts of Poland.
In the first set, the Caribeñas came out with a good defense, and a well-articulated offense where Gaila Gonzàlez, Brayelin Martínez and Yonkaira Peña contributed, with the great defense of Brenda Castillo and the combined blocking of Gaila Gonzàlez and Geraldine Gonzàlez.
The Dominican started ahead on the scoreboard 8-6, however, Turkey tied at 10 apiece.
It was there when a reaction came from Marcos Kwiek’s pupils and they made a 5-0 rally based on good attacks by Brayelin Martínez and several blocks, which placed the score at 15.10.
In the second, Turkey recomposed its offensive and defensive schemes, although the quisqueyanas offered them a fierce resistance. But, at the end of the games, the winners took a 21-18 lead, but fell in the end 25-21.
In the third, the Turkish team, with excellent defense and good blocking, dominated the game taking advantage of some defensive errors by the Dominicans, where Ebrar and Gunes mercilessly attacked the opposing defense.
In the fourth, the Caribeñas were not daunted and quickly built a 12-6 lead thanks to strong spikes from Gaila González and good blocks from Geraldine González to tie the match at two and provoke a decisive fifth set.
In the fifth, the Dominican was up 7-5, but the Turkish block started to work and Ebrar attacked with great success. Turkey made a 4-0 rally and went ahead 9-7.
Brayelin managed a powerful shot to put Turkey up 14-13 and a ball hit with an attack by Ebrar, gave the winners the 15th point.
