MATCH INFO

Ankara, Turkey, August 21, 2011-  Turkey won a hard-fought match against a valiant China team in straight sets (25-19, 25-17, 25-22) in the final match of the 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship at Baskent Hall in Ankara, Turkey on Sunday in front of a full house of more than 7.200 spectators.

FIVB Volleyball Girls' Youth World Championship

 Turkey won their first ever FIVB gold medal at the national level in their history. The only gold medal under their name before was for Fenerbahce’s women team who were crowned by the world club gold in Qatar last year.   

 Kubra Akman’s fantastic blocking and swooping spikes from all over the court ultimately gave the Turkish team a narrow edge in a close match spiced with hustle plays and long rallies.

 The Chinese players were affected by the noise of the local crowd and showed unusual disturbance in defense and also in their well known combinations. They fell into a lot of mistakes that were used efficiently by the outstanding Turkish player. Point by point the Turkish team showed more solid performance and motivation till they completely controlled the match

 The match started with outside spike by China's Weiwei Li that started 5-0 run by Turkey team. After one lost point due to unsuccessful passes, Kubra Akman from Turkey managed to gain initiative again. So at the first technical timeout hosts led 8-2. After the break China increased their pressure and with services by Ruoya Xu and efficient attacks and blocks started to catch up, 9-7. Powerful spikes from Chinese Peiyi Liu were an important factor for China's temporary success. Although the gap started to decrease at the STT Turkey still was ahead, 16-12.

After the break China continued to decrease the gap while Turkey did their best to keep their advantage, 19-16. With exchange of lost services and successful spike by Ece Hocao?lu Turkey won the first set, 25-19.

The second set began with Peiyi Liu's spike against Turkey, but as the tension on the court increased period of dominance of each team become shorter. But at the FTT of this set Turkey thanks to precise spike by Ceylan Arisan was again ahead 8-6. After the break Turkey continued to gain advantage with solid block by Kubra Akman and Seyma Ercan 12-8. Series of thrilling rallies continued this period with success changing from side to side, however Turkey continued to dominate. Answering on Liu's spike by Akman's block Turkey went into the STT 16-11 ahead. On the last minutes of this set ace by Ak?n Cagla, China's outside spike and powerful spike by Kubra Akman decided outcome of this set, Turkey won 25-17.

Thrilling rally that ended with outside Liu's spike was the beginning of the third set. It was followed by a series of long and exhausting rallies which resulted with draw 6-6. With spike from China's Ting Zhu China for the first time in this match went to the technical timeout ahead, 8-7. After the break Akman's spike made the scores equal but it was immediately reversed by China team, 9-9. Then Turkey scored five points in a row, 14-9 and was stopped just by another one Liu's spike. At the STT Turkey was again 16-10 ahead. After the break dominance of Turkey continued and they reached 20-14 with Ceylan Arisan's hit. On the last minutes China increased their pressure and tied the count to 21-20 with Turkish lead.

But after the timeout taken by Turkey, firstly Akman succeeded in spike, than Cagla Akin made ace service and reached 23-20. However next service was lost by Akin. With last successful attack Turkey won this set 25-22 and became a world champion.