“We came here for a medal” says Turkey’s Eylul Karadas

Rosario, Argentina, August 18, 2017 - After a fantastic display to defeat Dominican Republic, Turkish setter Eylul Karadas showed the confidence on her side as she underlined they’re looking forward to a place in the podium. Coach Sahin Catma added they “can beat anyone” playing at this level.

Eylul Karadas, Turkey player: “We played well because of our serve and defence; we kept the ball in the game all the time. We should reduce the simple mistakes we did, serve even better and improve our reception. We want to be in the first three; we are a powerful and strong team, we came here for a medal.”

Sahin Catma, Turkey coach: “The first game of every tournament is always very difficult to play; our target was to have a good performance in this first match, now we start again from the beginning. We respect all the teams, they are trying to do as well as they can, and every other team should respect us. We want to finish this first round atop of the pool. We have a game plan for every team; but we always need to serve and receive well. We have very strong players in the first line and we can beat anyone."

Natalia Martinez, Dominican Republic captain: “We lacked the desire to win. Not only we failed on counterattack, we also should have shown more fight, more effort and seizing our chances. It was the third set when we let it go - we were enjoying the game, serving better and leading but we went down and the game slipped from our hands.”

Alexandre Ceccato, Dominican Republic coach: “First of all, I want to congratulate Turkey for the great game they played. They served well, they have some very talented spikers and for us we must improve on every department. Turkey played hard the entire game, they pressured us and we couldn’t resist them. For our next match we have to completely change our way of playing.”