Neslihan Demir of Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul ready to serve against Dinamo Krasnodar.
Zurich, Switzerland, May 7, 2015 - What a difference a day makes! Pinned to the wall, after losing their opening match, Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul put up an impenetrable block, provided some spectacular digging and really put the pressure on with their serving, to beat Dinamo Krasnodar 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-19) and earn a berth in the semifinals of the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship.
With scoring very evenly spread out amongst Eczacibasi's stars (including 15 points from Neslihan Demir, 14 from Jordan Larson-Burbach and another 13 from Gozde Yilmaz), the Turkish side's five aces and twelve stuffs were more than Dinamo could handle. Some very poor attacking (including 5/14 for 36% in the first set by Dias Kalderon, who had to be substituted) added to the Russians' grief. Fe Garay reamained at 11/32 (34%) and Tatiana Kosheleva at 14/44 (32%).
It could, of course all have gone the other way, when Dinamo led 21-24 in the second set. But Larson-Burbach served five consecutive times on Liubov Shashkova (who had come on for Kalderon) to score one direct ace and generally create havoc on the Russian reception, eventually turning the set around for a 2-0 overall lead that really settled matters at Zurich's Saalsporthalle.
Dinamo can still go through to the semifinals, but they would need to beat Japan's Hisamitsu Springs Kobe 3-0 or 3-1 (for the full three points) tomorrow at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT) in the closing match of pool play.
Follow the match, as it happened,
here.