2019 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League down to Final Six in Nanjing

The three sets to two victory (25-23, 24-26, 25-20, 23-25, 16-14) for last year’s silver medallists over their Brazilian counterparts was a fitting end to a total of 120 matches of pool round competition played over the last five weeks.

Brazil came from behind in the tie-break from 12-10 to 12-13 and then were first to reach match point, before two serves from Gozde Yilmaz turned it around again for Turkey’s win. It was Yilmaz who brought in most of Turkey’s points, at 17, even though she didn’t even start in the first three sets but only came on as a sub. Still, Gabi outscored Yilmaz with a match high of 22 for Brazil.

The final week of pool action already had China, USA, Brazil, Italy and Turkey assured of their tickets to Nanjing. Poland did their bit in fine fashion by opening with wins over Japan and the Dominican Republic to claim the last spot , which was also aided by Japan stumbling to a slightly surprising defeat against Korea.

Both Turkey and Brazil however join hosts China, defending champions USA, plus Italy and Poland in the Final Six of the competition which is played from 3 to 7 July in Nanjing.

The Final Six again features all four teams that were in the medals matches last year which saw the USA overcome Turkey in five set to take the gold medals and China secure the bronze over Brazil.

Of last year’s remaining Final Six entrants, the Netherlands and Serbia are the ones to be replaced for this season with Italy and Poland taking their slots after some impressive performances in this year’s competition to date.