Jiangmen, China, June 11, 2019 – The United States and Turkey are reviving their rivalry, while China are seeking to extend their winning run to eight victories at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
United States – Turkey (June 11, 2019)
Head-to-head
• United States and Turkey meet in a repeat of last year's Volleyball Nations League final in Nanjing. United States came twice from behind, as they lost the first (25-17) and third set (28-26), to claim the title with a 3-2 victory. Three players scored a match-high 20 points: Turkey's Meryem Boz and Eda Erdem Dündar and USA's Kimberly Hill.
• United States won 13 of their 16 encounters with Turkey in world level major competitions (FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup).
• Turkey won only one of their last nine world level major competition encounters with United States: a five-setter in last year's VNL league round.
• United States - Turkey will be the first VNL fixture to have been played four times. All previous three VNL encounters between these sides were played in five sets, with Turkey always winning the first set.
• The most recent world level competition encounter between Turkey and United States came at the 2018 World Championship, with United States winning in straight sets in the second round.
United States
• United States suffered their second defeat of this year's Volleyball Nations League against Brazil (3-1).
• United States have already lost as many matches at the 2019 VNL as they did last year, when they lost in the league round against Turkey (3-2) and Serbia (3-1).
• United States could lose successive matches at a world level major competition for the first time since a run of four defeats at the 2018 World Championship.
• Andrea Drews (19) and Dana Rettke (17) both reached double figures in points scored against Brazil.
• Drews (101) is the first USA player to score a century of points at the 2019 VNL. Last year, she missed out the 100+ in the preliminary round of the VNL on 11 points, scoring 89 points.
Turkey
• Turkey have won eight of their nine matches at the 2019 Volleyball Nations League, with the only exception of a 3-0 defeat against Japan on 28 May.
• Turkey have won five successive VNL matches for the first time and could now set a new team record for longest winning run in world level major tournament matches.
• Turkey could win more than eight matches at a world level major competition for the third time, after the 2018 VNL (11) and the 2012 World Grand Prix (10).
• With a 53% success rate in spikes, Turkey's top scorer Erbrar Karakurt is the best attacker in the 2019 VNL.
• Kubra Caliskan is this year's joint-best blocker at the VNL, together with Bulgaria's Mira Todorova. Both averaged 0.76 stuff blocks per set.
China – Poland (June 11, 2019)
Head-to-head
• This will be the 23rd meeting between China and Poland at world level major tournaments. China won 16 times versus six wins by Poland.
• World level major tournaments are: FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup.
• Poland won their most recent world level encounter with China, a 3-2 victory in last year's Volleyball Nations League on 22 May 2018.
• Poland could claim successive major world level victories over China for only the second time, after Poland won their first two meetings with China at the world championships in 1956 (3-1) and 1974 (3-1).
China
• China have won seven Volleyball Nations League matches in a row, since a 3-1 defeat in their second match.
• Before this run, China did not have a winning streak of more than two VNL matches.
• China's last run of eight wins in a single world level major tournament came at the start of the 2016 World Grand Prix.
• Only Turkey (6) have claimed more 3-0 wins in the 2019 VNL than China (5).
• Xinyue Yuan is China's top scorer in the VNL in 2019, totaling 82 points. Ting Zhu follows with 78.
Poland
• Poland have won seven and lost two matches in their first three weeks of the 2019 Volleyball Nations League.
• Poland need one more win to equal their total number of victories in the 2018 edition of the VNL.
• Poland have won 13 of their last 16 matches in the VNL. Their defeats came back-to-back against Dominican Republic (June 2018), Italy (May 2019) and Serbia on 4 June.
• Malwina Smarzek leads all players in this year's VNL with 245 total points scored. Her closest competitors are Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez (DOM) on 201 and Gabriela Braga Guimaraes (BRA) on 154.
• Agnieszka Kakolewska (27) has the most stuff blocks of all players this VNL season.
Quick links - Volleyball:
FIVB.com - Volleyball Nations League
FIVB.com - Volleyball
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