Outside hitter and captain Mayu Ishikawa contributed a match-high 29 points towards Japan’s win. She led the team in both swinging with 26 successful spikes and blocking with three kill blocks. Her cross-court teammate Yoshino Sato delivered one ace and one kill block to finish with 24 points. Opposite Yukiko Wada chipped in with 12 points, while middle Haruyo Shimamura added another 10.
“I want to thank those players that are injured, but are fighting so hard. In my opinion, we deserved this comeback,” Japan’s Turkish head coach Ferhat Akbas told VBTV. “It was so tough, but great! In this kind of a tournament, when you have this kind of opportunities, it is actually even better sometimes. So, we will take our lesson and we need to work for the next matches.”
Ukraine made fewer unforced errors than Japan, but managed to outperform them most substantially in blocking, with 16 kill blocks against eight. Their middle Diana Meliushkyna authored a remarkable 11 of those and added eight points in attack to finish with a total of 19. Opposite Anastasiia Kraiduba put away 16 points, while outside Oleksandra Milenko emerged as the team’s most prolific scorer with 21 points to her name.