Former T&T "Calypso Spiker" Sinead Jack-Kisal secured her first piece of silverware as part of the Turkey national women's volleyball team when they went under to Italy in the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Thailand on September 7.
The FIVB world-ranking leaders, Italy added yet another trophy to their cabinet by prevailing over continental rivals Türkiye 3-2 (25-23, 13-25, 26-24, 19-25, 15-8) in the final held at the Huamark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok to return to the top of the podium in the tournament after 23 years.
The victory in Thailand gave Italy their fourth major international title in just over a year, following their victories at the Volleyball Nations League and the Paris Olympics in 2024 and their repeat as VNL champions just over a month ago.
Now undefeated in the 36 matches they played in the last 15 months, the Italians are the first women’s national team to simultaneously hold the Olympic and the world titles since Cuba did it in 2002.
For the Italians, this was their second title and their fourth World Championship medal after they won the tournament for the first time back in 2002.
With then win they have now made three consecutive podium appearances after taking silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022.
Star opposite Paola Egonu bounced back after a somewhat inconsistent performance to her standards against Brazil in the semifinals and led the Italians to the title with 22 points (18 kills, three blocks, one ace).
Outside hitter Myriam Sylla was also impressive, contributing 19 points (14 kills, four blocks, one ace), while Ekaterina Antropova again made a difference off the bench, producing 14 (12 kills, two blocks), many of which in key moments.
The final’s top scorer was Cuban-born Turkish star opposite Melissa Vargas, who tallied an incredible 33 points, with 28 kills, four aces and one block. Captain Eda Erdem also played a very solid match, contributing 19 points, with 15 kills, three blocks and one ace.
Interestingly, blocking was the only area of the game in which the Italians overcame the Turkish, outscoring them by 14 points to ten. Türkiye had the edge in kills (68 to 59) and aces (seven to five), and each team gave up 20 points in errors to their opponents.
In the bronze medal match, Brazil topped Japan 3-2 as well (25-12, 25-17, 19-25, 27-29, 18-16) to finish third and claim the last spot on the podium in the 20th edition of the tournament.
For the 31-year-old Jack, who stands at 1.96 cm tall, it was her second major tournament with the Turkish national women's team and her second appearance with two separate national teams at the FIVB Women's World Championship after she was part of the T&T senior women's team which made their tournament debut back in 2018 in Japan, under Cuban-born coach, Francisco 'Panchee' Cruz.
Back then, the 'Calypso Spikers' were beaten in all five of their Pool matches by USA (11-25, 12-25, 11-25); Russia (21-25, 11-25, 12-25); Azerbaijan (27-29, 18-25, 17-25), South Korea (24-26, 16-25, 23-25) and Thailand, 17-25, 17-25, 25-23, 11-25.
A member of the Eczacibasi Dynavit women's team in the Turkish Women's Sultanlar Ligi, middle-blocker Jack-Kisal who made her Turkish women's team debut during their sixth-placed campaign in the 18-nation FIVB Women's Nations League earlier in the year (June - July) helped her new teammates to a 3-0 Pool E round-robin record with wins against Spain (25-18, 25-20, 25-23), Belgium (25-23, 25-19, 25-13), and Canada (25-21, 27-25, 25-13).
This was followed by victories against Slovena (30-28, 25-13, 29-27) in round-of-16; USA (25-14, 22-25, 25-14, 25-23) in the quarterfinals and a come-from-behind triumph against Japan (16-25, 25-17, 25-18, 27-27) in the final-four before they came up short against the Italians.
The San Juan-born Jack-Kisal who will turn 32 on November 8 was a member of the T&T women's national volleyball team. She has Turkish citizenship by marriage and was selected to the Turkey women's national volleyball team.
Jack made her senior national women's team debut for T&T as a 16-year-old and in 2013 collected her first continental award when she was named the NORCECA Championship 'Best Middle Blocker' award. She then copped the 2017 Pan-American Cup 'Best Middle Blocker' award and the same award in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games.
On August 8, 2019, she married volleyball player Murathan Kısal and became a Turkish citizen and earlier this year she was approved by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) to play in Turkish status, and in April of this year was selected to the Turkey national team for the 2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League.
At the club level, Jack enjoyed stints with Polish volleyball clubs AZS Bialystok (2010-2013); Russia's VC Uralochka-NTMK (2013-2016); Turkey's Galatasaray (2016-2018); Japan's Denso Airybees (2018-2020); Turkey's Ilbank (2020-2021); Poland's Chemik Police (2021); Italy's Megabox Volley Vallefoglia (2021-2022) and her current club since 2022, Eczacıbaşı Dynavit.
