By Can Erozden
ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish women's national volleyball team on Monday fought hard to beat the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 3-2 in the Tokyo 2020 preliminary round Pool B match to complete the group phase.
Turkey won the nail-biting clash with the sets of 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-25, 15-10 as the match at Ariake Arena lasted for two hours and 16 minutes.
Previously secured the quarterfinals berth in Tokyo, Turkey was led by outside hitter Meryem Boz as the 33-year-old scored 22 points against the ROC.
Tugba Senoglu racked up 13 points for Turkey. Turkish middle blocker Zehra Gunes had 11 points.
Irina Voronkova was the top scorer for the Russian Olympic Committee as she had 20 points.
Arina Fedorovtseva scored 19 and Nataliya Goncharova added 18 points for the ROC.
Turkey had 3-2 win/loss record to finish the Pool B in the third position and are now waiting for their opponents in the knockout stage, which will be unveiled after Monday's Pool A games.
In addition to Turkey, Italy, the US and ROC qualified for the quarterfinals from the Pool B.
The quarterfinals will be held on Wednesday.