2003 🇨🇳 China vs Turkey 🇹🇷 🏐 Women Volleyball 🏐 FIVB World Cup

World Cup was one of the top 3 tournaments besides Olympic and World Championship. It was halted since 2019 and replaced by Olympic qualification. Top 3 teams in World Cup got tickets to Olympic year after.
Rule in World Cup was round-robin and 12 teams participated including Japan as a host. It held after each continental championship. 5 continents top 2 + Japan + one wild card which decidied by FIVB formed 12 teams.
Post-Match Commentary :
Turkey was 1st runner up in European championship and made Russia couldn't play in World Cup. This was probably the first time Turkey participated in World Cup and first time faced Asian team. They weren't even invited to play in World Grand Prix before.
The key players were #17 Neslihan Demir (20yo, 1.87m) & #7 Natalia Hanikoğlu (28yo, 1.93m). It was the first time they played against China and they not get used to the Asian style attack. The 1st set lost to China by 10-25. In 2nd set, China led the scores 4-5 points. But #17 service was very strong and made Chinese unable to receive well and got multiple blocks by Turkish. Turkey came back set 1-1. But China improved their 1st pass and played again Asian style, mutliple position attack by #4 Liu Yanan (23yo, 1.86m), #7 Zhou Suhong (24yo, 1.82m) & #8 Zhao Ruirui (22yo, 1.97m). Turkish unable to block all their flying attacks and lost to China was not surprise.