With most of the mega-matches still to come later in the tournament, there were few surprises on day of the 2018 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League.
The one big upset, however, was Germany, who last year played in just Group 2 of the World Grand Prix, beating Brazil, winners of 4 of the last 5 Grand Prixs, 3-1. Louisa Lippmann, following on her breakout year last year, was clutch again with 18 points and 48% hitting, but it was veteran outside htiter Maren Fromm, almost 32-years old, who led the team in scoring. She had 20 points, including 19 kills on 37 swings (51%), as Germany made the biggest day 1 statement.
The rest of the favored nations more-or-less won, though Russia was given a small fright by Argentina.
In the battle-within-the-battle, of the 4 challenger teams, who will fight for not only overall placement but for an invite to next year’s tournament, Belgium were the only winners thanks to a 3-0 sweep of core team South Korea. The Dominican Republic (3-0 to China) didn’t win a set, while Poland (3-1 to the United States) and Argentina (3-1 to Russia) did manage to pull out a crucial tie-breaking set win.
Of interest, there were no 3-2 outcomes on the first day of the Nation’s League, meaning that the math is remaining easy so far: 8 teams with 3 points, and 8 with 0 points. 3-2 winners get 2 points, and 3-2 losers receive 1.
- Pool 1 recap (Netherlands, Russia, Argentina, Thailand)
- Pool 2 recap (China, Belgium, Dominican Republic, South Korea)
- Pool 3 recap (USA, Italy, Turkey, Poland) Recap 1 | Recap 2
- Pool 4 recap (Brazil, Germany, Serbia Japan)
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  China |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | MAX | 75 | 43 | 1.744 |
| 2 |  Netherlands |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | MAX | 76 | 57 | 1.333 |
| 3 |  Serbia |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | MAX | 75 | 57 | 1.316 |
| 4 |  Belgium* |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | MAX | 75 | 61 | 1.230 |
| 5 |  Turkey |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | MAX | 75 | 62 | 1.210 |
| 6 |  Russia |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3.000 | 95 | 73 | 1.301 |
| 7 |  United States |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3.000 | 100 | 88 | 1.136 |
| 8 |  Germany |
1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3.000 | 90 | 85 | 1.059 |
| 9 |  Brazil |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 85 | 90 | 0.944 |
| 10 |  Poland* |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 88 | 100 | 0.880 |
| 11 |  Argentina* |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 73 | 95 | 0.768 |
| 12 |  Italy |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 62 | 75 | 0.827 |
| 13 |  South Korea |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 61 | 75 | 0.813 |
| 14 |  Japan |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 57 | 75 | 0.760 |
| 15 |  Thailand |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 57 | 76 | 0.750 |
| 16 |  Dominican Republic* |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 43 | 75 | 0.573 |
*- Denotes Challenger Teams
Leave a Reply