Turkey had a good all-round team performance to beat Canada
Sapporo, Japan, September 29, 2018 – Seyma Ercan top-scored as Turkey swept past Canada 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-15) on the first day of the FIVB Women’s World Championship at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center on Saturday.
Ercan picked up 14 points in a good all-round team performance. Meryem Boz was the second highest scorer with 13 points while captain Eda Erdem Dundar contributed 12.
Canada hurt their own cause with errors, including some poor reception play. Autumn Bailey, Alexa Gray and 19-year-old Kiera Van Ryk gave Canada some power in attack but Van Ryk was the only Canada player to get into double figures with 12 points.
Turkey led in every category, including an impressive 11-3 margin in aces and 27-14 in digs.
Turkey’s skill and experience helped them into an early lead, but Canada were fighting hard and keeping their opponents honest. Canada coach Marcello Abbondanza called a timeout at 11-6 but the Canadians were six points back at the second technical timeout after Van Ryk followed a beautiful ace with a slap into the net. But Canada weren’t giving up and some terrific defence brought them to within two points at 18-16 when Turkey coach Giovanni Guidetti was forced to call a timeout. While Canada’s enthusiasm was great, their reception wasn’t so hot and this cost them points, notably the final point of the set after a second reception error by Alexa Gray. Zehra Gunes took advantage to put Turkey 1-0 up. Canada had 12 errors in the set.
They didn’t start much better in the second set, falling behind 8-4 at the first TTO and dropping to 7-16 after a series of errors. Alexa Gray and Van Ryk did show Canada’s power hitting but a devastating burst of four aces by Turkey captain Eda Erdem Dundar – all on reception errors – destroyed Canada’s hopes of getting back into the set.
As in the second set, Turkey took control early in the third and were 8-4 up at the first TTO, with opposite Meryem Boz making another super spike from the right. To their credit Canada didn’t give up fighting but it was a losing battle as Turkey were attacking from all sides and fighting just as hard. Turkey were 16-9 up at the second TTO and had no problem finishing off the set and the match, captain Dundar delivering the final blow.