Sarina Koga Destroyed Volleyball Team Turkey With 31 Points !!!

Sarina Koga Destroyed Volleyball Team Turkey With 31 Points !!! Sarina Koga (古賀 紗理那, Koga Sarina, born May 21, 1996) is a Japanese volleyball player who won the bronze medal at the 2013 U23 World Championship with Japan's U23 national team. She also competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's volleyball.[1] Now, she is the senior national team captain.

Japan delivered the first huge upset of Volleyball Nations League 2024, defeating defending champions, the world’s number one team, and pool hosts Türkiye in Antalya on Wednesday evening. Their captain Sarina Koga produced 31 points and a truly inspirational performance on the court to lead her team to victory despite the deafening support of nearly 10 thousand Turkish fans for the home side.

Outside hitter Koga piled up 27 kills in attack, three aces and a kill block towards her 31-point match high in Japan’s 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 20-25, 15-11) victory over Türkiye. This outcome resulted in 9.9 points changing hands from Türkiye to Japan in their FIVB World Ranking scores, which is really important for the Asian team as they have not qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games yet. Japan jumped over the Dominican Republic into position eight in the ranking, narrowed the gap to number seven Italy and widened the distance from number 10 the Netherlands, two teams that have yet to earn their Olympic visas too.

Japan’s other striker Mayu Ishikawa added another 20 points towards this important success. Her tally included two of the team’s seven aces. Türkiye outplayed Japan in blocking with a total of 15 stuffs against just seven. The two middles, Beyza Arici and Asli Kalac, impressed with four kill blocks each. As many as five Turkish players reached the double digits in scoring. Tugba Senoglu Ivegin led the way with 19 points, followed by Ebrar Karakurt with 16, Hande Baladin with 15, Melissa Vargas with 12 and Beyza with 10.

Koga spearheaded Japan’s attacks to help open a six-point lead in the first set. Türkyie battled their way back to within one, but the Asians managed to edge ahead by a narrow 25-23. In a rollercoaster second set, Koga once again showed her leadership to steer her teammates to a 25-21 close and a 2-0 lead in the match.

The really tight battle continued in the third set, with the lead going back and forth a couple of times. With Ebrar Karakurt taking charge in Türkiye’s offence, they took the set by 25-23 to stay in the match. There was no stopping them in a one-sided fourth set as they cruised to a 25-20 win and pushed the game to five. Türkiye stormed the tie-breaker on a 3-0 run, but Japan quickly turned things around. After 9-5, coach Danielle Santarelli looked for options in the substitutions, but it was already too late. Koga kept shining to keep Japan in front and got a well-deserved chance to hammer the 15-11 match winner.

“It was our first game after a long period. We know that Japan is always a dangerous team and we tried our best. We lost by 3-2, but this is just the beginning. We have a long competition and for sure we’ll play better,” Türkiye’s libero Simge Sebnem Akoz said after the match. “I can’t explain how incredible it is to play in front of these fans. They love volleyball and we love them.”

“It’s amazing! It feels really nice,” exclaimed Japan’s Airi Miyabe. “Although all these people rooted for Türkiye, not us, there was a really nice atmosphere and we enjoyed it. It’s a really good way to start in the VNL. We really need our points and I’m glad we got some today. I think we did a really good job staying mentally strong in the fifth set.”

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