2023 VNL June 1 Summary: Germany, Poland, Türkiye Second Win

In the third day of VNL 2023, six thrilling matches were played across two pools. The day started off with an exciting match between Germany and Croatia in Nagoya, which saw Germany secure a 3-0 victory (25-18, 25-23, 25-23). Hanna Orthmann emerged as the star player of the match, scoring an impressive 23 points across three sets for the German side.

(Photo source: Volleyball World)

In another match in pool 2, the Dominican Republic claimed their first victory in the competition after a hard-fought 3-2 win (22-25, 25-16, 16-25, 25-14, 15-11) over Bulgaria. Brayelin Martínez delivered an outstanding performance, scoring 25 points for the Queen of the Caribbeans in the match.

In the last match of the day in pool 2, Brazil defeated the Netherlands in straight sets (25-23, 25-23, 25-21) with outside hitter Ana Cristina de Souza scoring 23 points. According to Volleyball World, after the match, Brazilian outside hitter Bergmann commented that although they are still in the process of learning to play together better as they haven’t practiced for long, their performance was better than the match against China the day before.

Moving on to pool 1, Thailand dominated Canada in straight sets (25-17, 26-24, 25-21) to secure their first victory of the tournament this year.

The second match of pool 1 of the day saw Poland’s impressive 3-1 victory (21-25, 25-20, 25-14, 25-18) over defending champions Italy. Polish opposite Magdalena Stysiak emerged as the top scorer of the match with 24 points, helping her team to secure their second victory of the tornament.

In the final match of the day, two coaches faced their former national teams, with Daniele Santarelli’s Türkiye coming out on top against Giovanni Guidetti’s Serbia. The Turkish team secured a 3-1 victory (24-26, 25-17, 25-15, 25-21) over Serbia in front of their home fans. According to Volleyball World, Turkish player Özbay, who was also coached Serbia’s coach Guidetti in club volleyball, said that despite losing focus in the first set, their never-give-up mentality and teamwork helped them win in an amazing atmosphere in Antalya.

(Featured image source: Volleyball World)

(Written by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)