The 2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, a new annual international women's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams that replaced the former World Grand Prix in the international calendar. It was held between May and July 2018, and the final round took place at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre in Nanjing, China.
Six-time World Grand Prix winners, United States won the inaugural editions after defeating Turkey in the final. This was Turkey's first ever final on a senior world-level premier competition (World Championship, World Cup, Summer Olympic Games and the aforementioned Grand Prix). Reigning Olympic champions and host nation, China defeated 12-time Grand Prix champions Brazil in the third place match. Michelle Bartsch-Hackley was elected the MVP of the tournament.
Argentina was the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and would be replaced by Challenger Cup winners Bulgaria in the 2019 edition.
Teams Qualification Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Twelve of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Other four teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament.
CountryConfederationDesignationPrevious appearancesPrevious best performanceTotalFirstLastCSVChallenger team0NoneDebutCEVChallenger team0NoneDebutCSVCore team0NoneDebutAVCCore team0NoneDebutNORCECAChallenger team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutAVCCore team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutCEVChallenger team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutAVCCore team0NoneDebutAVCCore team0NoneDebutCEVCore team0NoneDebutNORCECACore team0NoneDebut
Squads
Format Preliminary round The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams at each week and compete five weeks long, with a total of 120 matches. The top five teams after the league round join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round. The relegation takes in consideration only the 4 challenger teams and the last ranked challenger team will be excluded from the 2019 Nations League. The winners of the Challenger Cup will qualify for the next edition as a challenger team.
Final round The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in round-robin. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The pool winners play against the runners-up in this round. The semifinals winners advance to compete for the Nations League title. The losers face in the third place match.
Pools composition The overview of pools was released on February 16, 2018.
Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1RussiaPool 2ChinaPool 3United StatesPool 4BrazilWeek 2Pool 5JapanPool 6South KoreaPool 7Macau, ChinaPool 8TurkeyWeek 3Pool 9NetherlandsPool 10SerbiaPool 11ThailandPool 12Hong Kong, ChinaWeek 4Pool 13NetherlandsPool 14ChinaPool 15ThailandPool 16PolandWeek 5Pool 17GermanyPool 18PolandPool 19ItalyPool 20Argentina
Final round Pool APool B
Venues The list of host cities and venues was announced on February 16, 2018.
Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1Pool 2Pool 3Pool 4Yekaterinburg, RussiaNingbo, ChinaLincoln, United StatesBarueri, BrazilTeam Sports PalaceBeilun GymnasiumBob Devaney Sports CenterGinásio José CorrêaCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 8,000Capacity: 7,907Capacity: 5,100Week 2Pool 5Pool 6Pool 7Pool 8Toyota, JapanSuwon, South KoreaMacau, ChinaAnkara, TurkeySky Hall ToyotaSuwon GymnasiumMacau ForumBaşkent Volleyball HallCapacity: 6,500Capacity: 5,145Capacity: 4,062Capacity: 7,600Week 3Pool 9Pool 10Pool 11Pool 12Apeldoorn, NetherlandsKraljevo, SerbiaBangkok, ThailandHong Kong, ChinaOmnisport ApeldoornKraljevo Sports HallIndoor Stadium HuamarkHong Kong ColiseumCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 3,331Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 12,500Week 4Pool 13Pool 14Pool 15Pool 16Rotterdam, NetherlandsJiangmen, ChinaNakhon Ratchasima, ThailandBydgoszcz, PolandTopsportcentrum RotterdamJiangmen Sports HallKorat Chatchai HallŁuczniczkaCapacity: 2,500Capacity: 8,500 Capacity: 5,000Capacity: 8,764Week 5Pool 17Pool 18Pool 19Pool 20Stuttgart, GermanyWałbrzych, PolandEboli, ItalySanta Fe, ArgentinaPorsche-ArenaCentrum Sportowo-Rekreacyjne Aqua ZdrójPalaSeleGimnásio del Campus de la Universidad Tecnológica NacionalCapacity: 6,181Capacity: 2,000Capacity: 8,000Capacity: 5,000
Final round Nanjing, ChinaNanjing Olympic Sports Center GymnasiumCapacity: 13,000
Competition schedule ●League round●Final round
Week 115–17 MayWeek 222–24 MayWeek 329–31 MayWeek 45–7 JunWeek 512–14 JunWeek 6Rest WeekWeek 727 Jun – 1 Jul24 matches24 matches24 matches24 matches24 matches10 matches
Pool standing procedure Total number of victories (matches won, matched lost) In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most point gained per match as follows: Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: Set quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all set won by the number of all sets lost. Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the set quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. If the tie persists based on the point quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in point quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
Preliminary round Ranking
Week 1 Pool 1 All times are Yekaterinburg Time (UTC+05:00).
Pool 2 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 3 All times are Central Summer Time (UTC-05:00).
Pool 4 All times are Brasília time (UTC−03:00).
Week 2 Pool 5 All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
Pool 6 All times are Korea Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
Pool 7 All times are Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 8 All times are Further-eastern European Time (UTC+03:00).
Week 3 Pool 9 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 10 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 11 All times are Indochina Time (UTC+07:00).
Pool 12 All times are Hong Kong Time (UTC+08:00).
Week 4 Pool 13 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 14 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 15 All times are Indochina Time (UTC+07:00).
Pool 16 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Week 5 Pool 17 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 18 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 19 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 20 All times are Argentina Standard Time (UTC-03:00).
Final round Venue: Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, Nanjing, China All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool play Pool A
Pool B
Final four
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam4578910111213141516 Source: VNL 2018 final standings
14–woman RosterMicha Hancock, Carli Lloyd, Justine Wong-Orantes, Rachael Adams, TeTori Dixon, Lauren Gibbemeyer, Madison Kingdon, Jordan Larson (c), Andrea Drews, Kelly Murphy, Michelle Bartsch-Hackley, Kim Hill, Foluke Akinradewo, Kelsey RobinsonHead coachKarch Kiraly
Awards
Most valuable player
Best setter
Best Outside Hitters
Best Middle Blockers
Best Opposite
Best libero
Statistics leaders Preliminary round
Best ScorersPlayerSpikesBlocksServesTotal1 Malwina Smarzek30642133612 Brayelin Martínez2231982503 Tijana Bošković2062482384 Tandara Caixeta20712122315 Louisa Lippmann204119224
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Tijana Bošković2068013241849.282 Michelle Bartsch-Hackley1653214734447.973 Irina Voronkova1776715339744.584 Malwina Smarzek3069329669544.035 Tandara Caixeta2076520147343.76
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Agnieszka Kąkolewska52851232600.902 Adenízia da Silva4861621710.803 Ana Beatriz Corrêa4574932120.754 Eda Erdem Dündar44611232280.755 Malwina Smarzek4244541400.72
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Marlena Pleśnierowicz24242262740.412 Marlies Janssens21311041560.393 Eda Erdem Dündar22221421860.374 Elena Pietrini193144940.345 Hattaya Bamrungsuk18191391760.31
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Ilka Van de Vyver92418507144917.112 Carli Lloyd8457320117216.903 Roberta Ratzke8839405129714.724 Niverka Marte77613501129014.375 Denise Hanke7519537127912.95
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Maret Balkestein-Grothues1226681962.142 Suelen Pinto115131512791.923 Celine Van Gestel102141252411.894 Simge Şebnem Aköz11151082241.885 Kelsey Robinson9410941981.88
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Kim Hill61916323322.322 Britt Herbots751421630520.003 Kelsey Robinson631616023919.674 Celine Van Gestel822222833218.075 Yuki Ishii932729541515.90
Final round
Best ScorersPlayerSpikesBlocksServesTotal1 Zhu Ting7763862 Michelle Bartsch-Hackley6963783 Tandara Caixeta6524714 Eda Erdem Dündar41126595 Tijana Bošković543158
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Gabriela Guimarães50203410448.082 Tandara Caixeta65205614146.103 Zhu Ting77167616945.564 Lonneke Slöetjes3512338043.755 Tijana Bošković54294512842.19
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Adenízia da Silva132112461.082 Ana Beatriz Corrêa91421440.753 Zehra Güneş132337730.724 Eda Erdem Dündar122631690.675 TeTori Dixon111323470.65
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Jordan Larson8553660.472 Milena Rašić3228330.383 Roberta Ratzke4442500.334 Tandara Caixeta4442500.335 Eda Erdem Dündar6751640.33
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Roberta Ratzke2974430524.752 Cansu Özbay4184742923.223 Bojana Živković1661617320.754 Carli Lloyd3362534319.765 Ding Xia2761227919.71
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Zhu Ting37020572.642 Anne Buijs18010282.573 Suelen Pinto30014442.504 Kelsey Robinson42036782.475 Tijana Bošković18014322.25
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Gabriela Guimarães250426737.312 Kelsey Robinson3596310724.303 Simge Şebnem Aköz287528724.144 Liu Xiaotong183426323.815 Michelle Bartsch-Hackley3076810521.90
See also 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup
References
External links