Turkey rallied form what seemed a dire position to beat Canada at the Volleyball Nations League ©Getty Images

Turkey produced a stirring comeback against Canada to remain unbeaten at the women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) in Rimini in Italy - and are now one of only two sides that can say that.

Turkey trailed 2-1 in sets and were 23-17 behind in the fourth, but reeled off eight points in a row to take the match to a tiebreak which they duly won.

The final score was 25-23, 19-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-12 in Turkey's favour as they avoided an upset, despite winning fewer points in total.

"We struggled a lot in every element of the game, but we didn't give up," Cansu Özbay told Volleyball World afterwards. 

"In the fourth set we really did something, I think, magnificent - we were losing 23-17, but we managed to win this set. 

"I'm really proud of my team mates because this game was very important for us in terms of standings and ahead of the next matches."

Canada remain winless.


Japan lost their unbeaten record, downed 25-15, 25-19, 25-21 by Brazil.

Reigning VNL champions the United States beat Serbia - the world champions, who sent a young squad to the Rimini bubble - 25-20, 25-16, 25-12, and are top of the table with the maximum 12 points.

Olympic champions China were like Turkey playing comeback queens, and won 20-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-21, 15-9 against Germany.

Russia, Poland and The Netherlands respectively beat Italy, South Korea and Thailand in straight sets.

Belgium beat the Dominican Republic in today's other match - a mammoth fiver-setter which finished 31-33, 19-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-11.

All 16 teams will be back in action tomorrow.