The Oranges Make Statement: Türkiye vs Netherlands Women’s VNL 2026 Week 1 Recap
- therookiereporters
- Jun 8
- 5 min read
Samba leaves its place for volleyball this week in Brazil. In the second matchday of the Volleyball Nations League 2026, Türkiye and Netherlands meet again in a much anticipated match-up.
The Turks and the Dutch are not foreign to one another on the volleyball court. Two teams faced each other many times before and The Sultans of the Net showed clean domination against Netherlands by winning 14 of the last 20 games. Oranje took their latest victories against Turks in 2018, in both VNL and Super Series.
The World #3 Türkiye came to the first week in Brazil with an unusual squad. Coach Daniele Santarelli left out many of Türkiye’s key players such as Melissa Vargas, Zehra Günes and Ebrar Karakurt, in order to keep them fresh for the latter stages and to introduce new, young players to the squad. The last time Türkiye debuted so many new players was 2018, which gave birth to the key figures of today’s key figures of the team. This new squad with many fresh faces passed their first test successfully with a 3-2 win against Dominican Republic. Despite not having the rather dominant fashion of the usual, experienced squad, some new talents made decent first impressions on their debut.
In contrast to their experimental opponents, the Netherlands who sit in the World #8 spot, brought rather familiar faces to week 1. However, despite their valiant effort in the closing stages against the home favourites, the Oranges couldn’t escape 3-1 defeat against the Brazilians. In the previous games against Türkiye, the Sultans mostly had their best players on display, so now the question is, can the Dutch break their 10-game losing streak against a rather inexperienced and fresh Turkish squad?
The outside hitter Yaprak Erkek stands out as the main attacking threat of the Turks, catching the eye with a 21-points performance against Dominican Republic. The mid blocker Deniz Uyanik also provided safety with 4 blocks to her name and is expected to be the main protector of the Turkish side of the court again. On the other hand, despite missing Nika Daalderop in the first week, Helena Kok and Jolien Knollema would be Netherlands’ attacking options, while Sarah Van Aalen set up the crucial balls for them.
So, without further ado, here are the starting players of both teams:Türkiye: Ozdemir (S) - Uyanik (MB) - Erkek (OH) - Aydin (OH) - Ozden (MB) - Basyolcu (OH)
Netherlands: Knollema (OH) - Van Aalen (S) - Baijens (MB) - Kok (OH) - Reesink (L) - Dambrink (O)
First Set
The Sultans began superior until the first timeout. Basyolcu and Erkek continued where they left from the first game. Despite Van Aalen’s decent setting efforts, Netherlands struggled in the beginning phase, especially with blocking and making slide attack plays. However, after the first timeout, the Oranges stepped up in both attack and defence. With Indy Baijens returning to the court, the middle blocker did not only put 2 strong blocks on the net, but also found 2 successful slide attempts. The Turkish side making technical mistakes also helped the Oranges in the process. Netherlands found the momentum and took the lead with Elles Dambrink stepping up on attack as well, but the Turks were not far behind. The opposite hitter Defne Basyolcu answered Dambrink’s 5 points with 6 of her own, the most in the first set, and kept her team toe-to-toe against the Oranges. Although the Turks remained hopeful with Erkek and the youngster Uysalcan’s late attacking contributions, they couldn’t prevent Netherlands from winning the set 25-23 and taking the 1-0 lead. Türkiye seemed better organised in their own side of the court, however they struggled to make good serve receptions. Baijens lit up the fire for the comeback of the Oranges, Dambrink and Struut contributed with 5 points each.
Second Set
On the Dutch side, Indy Baijens started effectively on the net once again and Helena Kok, top scorer of the Brazil game, joined the attacking contribution. Turks kept up in the beginning with Basyolcu hitting parallel and Erkek to the opposite side. However, their defensive integrity slowly began to collapse, as the back row struggled a lot to defend both spikes and dinks of the Oranges. Netherlands found many points from block-outs and shut down Türkiye’s attack completely especially after the first timeout. With the increasing mistakes and both attack and defence collapsing, the Sultans couldn’t prevent the Oranges from opening the gap. Netherlands won this set as well and made it 2-0. Helena Kok became the standout performer of this set with 7 points. Despite having the superior defending in this set, Netherlands’ 6 mistakes (5 attacking and 1 serve) also caught attention.
Third Set
In many ways, the third set was exactly like the second one. Baijens showed her early presence on the net, this time more in an attacking manner than defending one. Kok put another 7-points performance, all from attack, Dambrink and Knollema joined the frey as well with 6 points combined. The Oranges, who got their first ace in the second set, found 3 of them alone in this one. The amount of successful dink attempts by the Dutch increased too, as Türkiye lost the defending integrity and concentration. The Sultans found some attacking momentum with Defne Basyolcu and Karmen Aksoy for a short period, but they couldn’t back it up with defensive efforts. So, in the end, Netherlands closed the set and the game with 25-18 and 3-0 overall.
With this result, Netherlands finally broke their 8-years losing streak to Türkiye and went up to the 8th place in the VNL standings with their first victory of the week. They also managed to remain 8th in the FIVB World Rankings. However, the same can not be said for the Sultans. Türkiye did not only lose for the first time this week and dropped down to 11th in the competition’s standings, they also lost their third place in the world rankings.
Helena Kok turned up rather late to the occasion, but it was enough for her to become the top scorer for Netherlands with 17. Elles Dambrink followed her with 12 points, Baijens with 11 and also did the most amount of blocks with 4. Netherlands started a little shaky at first, but recovered quickly to dominate the game in the last two sets. On the other hand, Defne Basyolcu was the best performer for Türkiye with 12 points and seemed like a constant attacking powerhouse, first game’s top scorer Yaprak Erkek came after her with only 9 points. Turks’ early momentum couldn’t last long, despite a very decent first set. It seems like some of the newcomer Sultans are still trying to settle in and experiencing some setbacks, especially on the defensive play.
In summary, Netherlands beat Türkiye in game 2 of the first week of Women's VNL in Brazil. Both teams will be up against Italy in their next games, first Netherlands and then Türkiye. We’ll see how the Oranges and the Sultans deal with another top 3 team in the World Standings.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026