T&T-born women’s volleyballer, Sinead Jack-Kisal, now a Turkish citizen and Eczacıbaşı Dynavit battled past defending champions Fenerbache Opet in five sets to level their Vodafone Turkish Women’s Sultanlar Ligi Volleyball finals on Saturday.
Following their 22-25, 27-25, 23-25, 25-27 loss in the opener on Tuesday, Eczacıbaşı Dynavit was in a must-win situation and pulled off a stunning 21-25, 25-22, 14-25, 25-14, 15-9 win at the Burhan Felek Vestel Voleybol Salonu in İstanbul.
Leading the way for record 16-titime Turkish champions Eczacıbaşı Dynavit was Serbian Tijama Boskovic with 25 points while Alexa Gray added 17, and Hande Baladin chipped in with a valuable 11 points.
Eczacıbaşı Dynavit also got eight points from Irina Voronkova while Jovana Stevanovic got five, and Jack-Kisal, two in the win.
On the other side of the net, Cuban-born Turkish international, Melissa Vargas had a team-high 22 points for Fenerbache Opet while Ana Cristina added 19, and Arina Fedorovtseva 16 in the loss ahead of the third match today (Monday, April 15) with the fourth game carded for Thursday (April 18).
In the semifinals, Eczacıbaşı Dynavit beat Vakifbank 2-0 via a first-leg 25-11, 23-25, 25-21, 25-15 result, and 25-23, 25-20, 25-20 in the second-leg and in the other semifinal Fenerbache Opet defeated Turk Hava Yollari 25-23, 17-25, 25-23, 25-14 and 25-18, 25-20, 25-16.
The win on Saturday for Eczacıbaşı Dynavit was the first in five matches this season against Fenerbache Opet after the latter defeated Eczacıbaşı Dynavit 3-2 twice in the league and 3-1 in the AXA Sigorta Kadinlar Volleyball Cup final, and the first match of the final series.
Eczacıbaşı Dynavit ended the regular season in the third spot with a 23-3 record and 68 points, five adrift of table-toppers Fenerbache (24-2) while Vakifbank was second with 69 points, a similar record of 24-2 as the table toppers with Turk Hava Yollari, in the fourth spot with 54 points, and a 19-7 record.
By ending the regular season at the top of the table, Fenerbahçe Opet also gained the right to directly participate in the CEV Champions League next season after losing out in last month’s semifinals along with Eczacıbaşı Dynavit.
Last month, Jack-Kisal and her club came up short against Italians A Carraro Imoco Conegliano in the second-leg semifinal of the CEV Women’s Champions League.
Conegliano, who rallied from 0-2 down in the best-of-five sets first-leg at 26-28, 20-25, 25-14, 25-22, 18-16, secured their spot in the final against fellow Italian outfit Allianz Vero Volley Milano after a 25-17, 25-15, 24-26, 25-16 second-leg win.