Fantastic Koga inspires Japan to huge upset of Türkiye

Outside hitter Koga piled up 27 kills in attack, three aces and a kill block towards her 31-point match high in Japan’s 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 20-25, 15-11) victory over Türkiye. This outcome resulted in 9.9 points changing hands from Türkiye to Japan in their FIVB World Ranking scores, which is really important for the Asian team as they have not qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games yet. Japan jumped over the Dominican Republic into position eight in the ranking, narrowed the gap to number seven Italy and widened the distance from number 10 the Netherlands, two teams that have yet to earn their Olympic visas too.

Japan’s other striker Mayu Ishikawa added another 20 points towards this important success. Her tally included two of the team’s seven aces. Türkiye outplayed Japan in blocking with a total of 15 stuffs against just seven. The two middles, Beyza Arici and Asli Kalac, impressed with four kill blocks each. As many as five Turkish players reached the double digits in scoring. Tugba Senoglu Ivegin led the way with 19 points, followed by Ebrar Karakurt with 16, Hande Baladin with 15, Melissa Vargas with 12 and Beyza with 10.