Istanbul, Turkey, June 19, 2015 - Kadir Cin and Baturalp Burak Gungor led Turkey to a comfortable 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-13) victory in Istanbul over the hapless Puerto Rico. Turkey consolidate second place in Pool F whilst Puerto Rico continue to prop up the table.
Both sides started the tie wary of each others strengths as the early exchanges saw the score level at 4-4. From here second placed Turkey edged ahead in front of their home fans opening up a five point gap to lead 15-10 at midway in the set. Their was a brief attempt from Puerto Rico to stem the flow of points but the Turkish contingent grew stronger to lead 21-14 and they duly wrapped the first set up comfortably 25-16 to lead 1-0 in the tie.
Backed by the home crowd, Baturalp Burak Gungor was in impressive spiking form with 7 from 7 and Turkey again forged an early 12-8 lead in set two thanks to their attacking prowess. Puerto Rico were again playing catch-up but could not force the momentum to shift their way as Turkey edged seven points in front at 20-13. Turkey took full advantage of the gap and took the second set with the same scoreline as the first 25-16.
Puerto Rico needed to take the early initiative in the third set to extend the tie into a fourth and were matching Turkey point for point early in the third set to keep the scores level at 5-5. However Turkey again showed their more refined play to take an 8-6 lead with Gungor and Kadir Cin leading the scorers for Turkey whilst Hector Soto led the way for Puerto Rico.
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