FIVB Women’s Club World Championship
- October 18-23
- Mall of Asia Arena, Manila, Philippines
- Watch live on FIVB’s YouTube channel or follow on Twitter
Eight teams will face off this week at the FIVB Women’s Club World Championship in the Philippines.
How they qualified
- PSL-F2 Logistics Manila — hosts
- Pomi Casalmaggiore — 2016 European Champions
- Bangkok Glass — 2015 Asian Champions
- Rexona-Sesc Rio — 2016 South American Champions
- Eczacibasi Vitra Istanbul — wild card
- Volero Zurich — wild card
- Vakifbank Istanbul — wild card
- Hisamitsu Springs Kobe — wild card
Tournament format
Pool A is: PSL-F2 Logistics Manila, Eczacibasi Vitra Istanbul, Pomi Casalmaggiore, and Rexona-Sesc Rio.
Pool B is: Bangkok Glass, Hisamitsu Springs Kobe, Vakifbank Istanbul, and Volero Zurich.
Vakifbank Istanbul will Hisamitsu Springs of Japan on Monday night to kick off the tournament.
On Tuesday in pool A, Pomi Casalmaggiore of Italy, the 2016 European Champions, will play Eczacibasi Vitra.
PSL-F2 Logistics, the hosts, will compete with Rexona-Sesc, the 2016 South American Champions.
In pool B, Volero faces Bangkok Glass, the 2015 Asian Champions.
The semifinals are on October 22, and the third-place and gold-medal matches are on October 23.
Backstory
In May, FIVB and Eventcourt announced Manila would host the championship. It’s the first volleyball world championship to be held in the country.
Although the host team has been together for only 25 days, coach Branislav Moro said the players are “ready to step up in this tournament.”
“It’s a dream to play against a team like Rexona,” he said. “If I did not dream to reach this stage, then maybe I would not be a coach. All the other teams are certainly better than our team and I have big respect for these top players and coaches, but I believe that Philippine volleyball has already emerged a winner before the start of this tournament.”
The tournament is Bangkok Glass’s first championship appearance. The club was founded in 2014 and punched their ticket to the 2016 world championship when they won the AVC Club Championship last year. It’s looking for redemption after losing to the NEC Red Rockets of Japan in the 2016 AVC Club Championship in hard-fought five sets.
They’ll face Volero, which holds a 6-6 all-time record at FIVB world championships. It won bronze last year after defeating Rexona-Ades Rio.
Eczacibasi Vitra is looking to its top player, hitter Jordan Larson-Burbach, to lead it to a second FIVB World Championship title. Larson-Burbach is a USA national team player who joins Olympic gold medalist Thaisa Menezes of Brazil, FIVB world champion Tatiana Kosheleva of Russia, and Rio 2016 bronze medalist Rachel Adams.
Vafikbank last appeared in the FIVB world championship in 2013, when it won gold. It’ll face Hisamitsu Springs, who will host the 2017 FIVB Club World Championship.
You can watch the matches throughout the week on FIVB’s YouTube channel or follow FIVB on Twitter @FIVBWomensCWC.
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