Agency :
Türkiye edge past China in a five-set thriller here on Tuesday to reach the women’s volleyball semi-finals of the Paris Games.
Melissa Teresa Vargas scored 42 points to lead the Turkish women to the victory (23-25, 25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 15-12) in the first quarter-final match on Tuesday morning.
It was tied 11-all in the fifth set before a smash of Vargas and a spiking error from Wu Mengjie of China pushed Türkiye up at 13-11. Gong Xiangyu had a smash to pull China within 13-12, but another kill of Vargas and a smart play of Elif Sahin, who replaced injured starting setter Cansu Ozbay in the last three sets, sealed the victory for Türkiye.
“Vargas played a great game. We tried our best to stop her, but could not do that well enough,” said China head coach Cai Bin.