Turkey women's volleyball team beat the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 3-2 to secure third position in Tokyo 2020 Olympics Pool B on Monday.
The Turkish women had already secured quarterfinals and will face either Serbia or South Korea in the last eight.
The ROC team made a flying start to the match, opening up a 13-9 advantage and forcing Turkey to take a timeout.
Despite a late fightback, with four back-to-back points, the “queens of the nets,” the ROC clinched the first set 25-21. Turkey once again found itself behind in the second set, falling to 9-4. On a below-par day for blockers, Turkey fell further behind to 16-.
However, the team recovered with the introduction of Tuğba Şenoğlu, who helped his side cut the deficit to just one at 18-17.
Tuğba's unplayable serves put Turkey ahead at 23-21 and helped clinch the second set 25-23. The match was tied 1-1.
In the third set, Meryem Boz helped Turkey pull ahead at 15-13 and eventually win it 25-23.
Despite a 2-1 advantage, Turkey faltered in the fourth se, mostly due to a number of unplayable serve from the ROC, who ultimately won 25-15 to make it 2-2.
In the fifth set, however, Turkey fought back with Ebrar Karakurt. It went ahead with 8-3, before finally sealing the match 15-10.
Turkey was led by outside hitter Boz as the 33-year-old scored 22 points against the ROC.
Şenoğlu racked up 13 points for Turkey. Turkish middle blocker Zehra Güneş had 11 points.
Irina Voronkova was the top scorer for the Russian Olympic Committee as she had 20 points.
Arina Fedorovtseva scored 19 and Nataliya Goncharova added 18 points for the ROC.
Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu watched the match from the stands.
