Italy and Türkiye deliver strong starts in the 2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League

The winners of the last three seasons of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, Italy and Türkiye, are the two European sides to have thrown off the new edition of the competition with a 100% winning record, taking four wins after the first four matches, with Japan being the only side to win all their matches without dropping a set.

A star-studded Italy squad, which boasted CEV Champions League Women winners Monica de Gennaro and Sarah Fahr, but also stars like Ekaterina Antropova, Paola Egonu or Alessia Orro, delivered three fantastic matches against the United States of America, the Republic of Korea and Brazil, only to find themselves backed in a tough spot against Germany.

Italy, the reigning Olympic champions, started with a clear 3:0 win (25:13; 25:13; 30:28) against the United States of America, where Paola Egonu scored 17 points, followed by Myriam Sylla, who had 14 points. 

In the second match, Italy conceded the first set against Germany, 22:25, jumped to a 25:10 win in the second set, only to concede the third, 20:25. But with two fantastic sets to end the match, Julio Velasco’s side took the next sets, 25:13 and 15:9, with Antropova delivering 31 points, six of which came from blocks and four from aces.

Egonu took control of the match against Korea, which Italy won, 25:13, 25:13, 25:17, while the last match played by the European powerhouse in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, saw Italy defeat the hosts, 25:22, 25:18 and 29:27, with Egonu having 10 points.

Türkiye also had four wins in four matches in Beijing, starting with a 3:1 win over debutants France (25:17; 23:25; 25:13; 25:14), as Deniz Uyanık had 16 points, followed by Alexia Căruțașu, who had 15 points.

Căruțașu was her team’s top scorer with 19 points against Thailand in Türkiye’s 3:0 (25:23; 25:14; 25:22) win, while the European clash between the reigning European champions and Poland provided one of the most exciting matches in the first week of this edition’s FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League.

Türkiye took the first set, 25:21, only for Poland to bounce back with a 25:18 win in the second set. The third one was again won by Türkiye, 25:23, before Poland bounced back and took a 25:22 win, to push the match in the deciding set. Hande Baladın had 22 points for the Turkish side, while Magdalena Stysiak had 23 points, but in the end Türkiye took a 15:7 win to clinch the match, 3:2.

Another fantastic performance from Căruțașu, who had 39 points against the People’s Republic of China, lifted Türkiye to a 3:2 win against the hosts, after the reigning European champions came back from a 2:1 deficit, to take the fourth set, 28:26, and the fifth one, 15:12.

While Poland, already qualified to the knockout phase, due to take place in Łódź finished the first week with a 3:1 record, four other European teams have two wins and two losses – Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, which are currently placed sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively in the standings.

France and Belgium have won one match each, while Serbia are the only European team to have lost all four matches, winning six sets so far, conceding 2:3 losses against the Dominican Republic, Buglaria and Canada.

The FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League 2025 resumes next week in Istanbul, Türkiye, Hong Kong and Belgrade, Serbia between 18 and 22 June.