Of the four teams gathered in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the first preliminary round of the FIVB Volleyball Nations League this week, it was No. 12 Turkey, not second-ranked Team USA, that emerged unscathed. 

A night after upsetting No. 7 Italy to open its VNL tournament, Turkey toppled the Americans in front of their home crowd, benefitting from eight blocks from 17-year-old Zehra Gunes and 17 points from Meryem Boz in the 3-2 (28-26, 25-19, 20-25, 24-26, 16-14) battle.

The next night, the Turkish squad wrapped up a great week with a straight-set victory over Poland. 

The U.S. women opened the inaugural Nation’s League with a four-set victory over Poland, in which outside hitter Michelle Bartsch-Hackley collected an impressive 27 points (25 kills and two blocks), but the next night with a different starting lineup, they weren’t able to come back after losing the first two sets.

“Turkey is a really good team—we are a good team,” Kiraly said on Wednesday. “Battles like that will happen a lot. This was only match number two. I liked how our team responded down 2-0 and came storming back.”

Against Turkey, Rio Olympian Kim Hill led Team USA with 19 points, while team captain Jordan Larson came in off the bench in set two, contributing seven kills and helping push the match to five.

The next night, the home team switched up the lineup and found a good groove, handing Italy a resounding 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-21) defeat. 

Kelsey Robinson, who started at outside against Turkey, donned the libero jersey for the Italy match, collecting 21 receptions with a 52 percent positive reception rate.

“We had been having some trouble in our service reception and we wanted to stabilize in that department,” Kiraly said. “[Robinson] is a world-class receiver. She was one of the best passers at the Rio Olympics.”

Hill once again led on offense with 13 points, but mostly, Italy struggled to find its rhythm with a very young roster, making 23 errors in the match.

Although Kiraly is clearly still figuring out his most effective lineup, Carli Lloyd has started all three matches and appears to have the setter position on lock for the time being.

With a 2-1 record, Team USA sits third in the VNL rankings, trailing only Turkey and the Netherlands, which are both undefeated. Serbia, China, Brazil, Russia, Korea, and Belgium also went 2-1 in the opening week of preliminary play. 

The U.S. women will now hit the road for the remainder of the VNL tournament, traveling to Toyota, Japan, next week, and then Bangkok, Jiangmen, China, and Santa Fe, Argentina.

You can follow their VNL journey live on FloVolleyball.