The remarkable displays by Yaprak Erkek and Melissa Vargas enabled Turkey to claim their initial 3 points at the 2025 World Championship.
Turkey's women's volleyball team demonstrated their superior strength with a straight-sets win over Spain in the opening match of the 2025 Women's Volleyball World Championship held tonight on August 23rd.
From the very first points, Turkey showed dominance by effectively using blocking and wing attacks to build a lead. Spain started determinedly, keeping close in the early stages, but as the set progressed, the point gap steadily widened.
Spain’s tactical adjustments and substitutions helped them prevent the gap from widening too quickly, but were insufficient to change the momentum. Turkey maintained pressure with strong serves and wing attacks, controlling the set until the end.
In the second set, the game was more balanced. Spain started well, capitalizing on Turkey’s errors to take the lead, but Turkey caught up and extended their advantage to a safe margin. Spain fought back hard and impressively reached 20 points in this set, showing great determination despite facing a very strong opponent.
Spain began the third set with enthusiasm, creating a 4-point lead, but Turkey quickly responded. Yaprak Erkek’s brilliance helped the world top-6 team widen the gap again, though Turkish fans were nervous when Spain unexpectedly caught up in the final sprint points. Fortunately, no surprises occurred, and Turkey won the match 3-0 (25-18; 25-20; 25-23), securing their first 3 points at this year’s World Championship.
Erkek led Turkey’s scoring with 15 points, followed by Melissa Vargas with 14 and Ebrar Karakurt with 12. On Spain’s side, Ana Escamilla Serrano was their highest scorer with 13 points.
In their next match two days later (August 25th), Turkey will face Bulgaria, while Spain will compete against Canada.