Vargas and Karakurt lead Türkiye to five-set victory over the USA
Melissa Vargas and Ebrar Karakurt delivered the scoring production Turkish fans expect from them, with the two combining for 46 points in the match. The MVP of last year’s VNL, Vargas had a match-high 27 points (23 kills, two blocks, two aces), with Karakurt contributing another 19 (17 kills, two blocks).
“It was a really tough match for us,” Turkish captain Eda Erdem, who scored 12 points, said. “USA is a great team and they’re real fighters. In the tie-breaker, we stepped up and showed our character as a team. Our goal here was to finish this week with four wins and I’m glad we did it. My teammates were amazing this week. We had injuries and it’s a long tournament, but we’re trying to do our best and find our rhythm. I think we’re on the right path.”
The American offense had opposite Jordan Thompson, with 16 points (13 kills, three blocks), outside hitter Jordan Larson, with 14 (12 kills, two aces), and middle blocker Dana Rettke, with 13 (ten kills, three blocks), as its main producers.
“I think we were trying to take big swings and it’s a game of inches,” setter Jordyn Poulter reflected. “We missed by inches. But this week we saw we have people who can come off the bench and win games for us. During the entire VNL, we’ve been looking to get better. Today we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we got better.”
Their sixth victory in eight VNL 2024 matches has Türkiye in fifth place with 18 points – the USA are eighth with four victories and 13 points.
