LEGENDARY MATCH | JAPAN vs TURKIYE | Women's VNL 2023. Clutch Koga propels Japan to overcome Türkiye in a thriller. The Asians were stronger in the tie-breaker and stopped the European reaction in Bangkok.

Japan needed a lot of mental strength and every bit of concentration to stop Türkiye’s reaction in the tie-breaker and secure a five-set win in the first match of both teams in the third and final week of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 Preliminary Phase, on Wednesday, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Asians seemed in control after they won the first two sets, but saw the Europeans come back and even the score before they prevailed on the tie-breaker to walk away from the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium with a 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 16-25, 15-9) win.

With six wins in nine matches and 18 points, the Japanese are now in seventh place, firmly in the mix to secure a spot in the VNL 2023 Finals – the eight best teams in the Preliminary Phase will advance. Türkiye also have six victories, but, with 20 points amassed, currently rank fourth.

Team captain and outside hitter Sarina Koga came up big for the Japanese, emerging as the match’s top scorer with 25 points. The 27-year-old player got 22 kills, two aces and one block, getting as many as six points in the tie-breaker.

Outside hitter Mayu Ishikawa, with 19 points, and opposite Miyu Nagaoka, with 12, were other standouts in a Japanese team that saw as many as eight players leave the court with points to their names.

“I think all of us delivered the best game we could today,” middle blocker Airi Miyabe said. “We made a lot of substitutions in this match and I think our teamwork was the reason we won today. That’s what we train for. We don’t have the tallest players, so our strength really is in our team. We need to be together to face strong teams like Türkiye.”

Without opposite Melissa Vargas, Türkiye got 19 points (17 kills, two blocks) from fellow opposite Ebrar Karakurt. The team's middle blocker duo also worked well, combining for 29 points (15 from Zehra Gunes and 14 from Eda Erdem) and impressive 13 blocks.

Blocking, indeed, represented the biggest difference between the teams in the match, with Türkiye getting 17 points to Japan’s nine. The Europeans also got more points from opponent errors (26 to 22) while the Asians were dominant in kills (67 to 61) and aces (four to one).

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