FIVB Women’s Challenger Cup: Bulgaria Wins Pool B; Peru Advances to Semis as Well

2018 FIVB WOMEN’S CHALLENGER CUP:

• June 20-24, 2018
• Lima, Peru

A chance at making the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League is on the line, as the winner of the 2018 FIVB Women’s Challenger Cup will keep their hopes alive (more on what is needed to qualify below). The tournament, hosted by Peru, will work into the championship match on June 24 to culminate the action. Results, standings and more can all be seen below.

FORMAT:

• What’s on the line?
  • The winning team of the tournament will get to face the lowest ranked challenger team from the 2018 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League.
    • Whichever team wins that match will make the 2019 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League
• Six teams are split into two pools (three in each)
  • The six are made up of the host nation (Peru), South American qualifier (Colombia), Asian qualifier (Australia), North American qualifier (Puerto Rico) and Golden European League qualifiers (Bulgaria & Hungary)
  • The top two teams from each three-team pool will move on to the semifinals
    • Pool A#1 vs. Pool B#2 & Pool B#1 vs. Pool A#2

RESULTS:

Pool A:

• World Rankings: #26 Peru, #28 Colombia, #30 Hungary

PERU DEF. HUNGARY 3-0

• Peru def. Hungary 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 28-26)
• Peru improves to 1-1; Hungary falls to 0-2

Playing with their backs to the wall in front of a home crowd, Peru dominated Hungary early and then squeaked out a tight third to earn a sweep victory. The importance is that Peru finishes as the Pool A runner-up, putting them in the semifinals against the Pool B winner (Bulgaria) while Hungary will not move on to the elimination round.

The serve was strong right out of the gate for the Peruvians, who went on to win the battle of aces 10-1. That helped contribute to softening the Hungarian offense and Peru dropping down 15 more kills (42-27). A trio of players for Peru reached double-digit points too in providing the team with a multitude of options, led by Karla Ortiz (12 points) and Clarivett Yllescas (11 points), compared to just one for Hungary in Bernadett Dekany (10 points) who didn’t have quite the support.

Pool B:

• World Rankings: #13 Puerto Rico, #17 Bulgaria, #42 Australia

BULGARIA DEF. PUERTO RICO 3-0

• Bulgaria def. Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-14)
• Bulgaria improves to 2-0; Puerto Rico falls to 1-1

In a meeting for the Pool B title, Bulgaria made quick work of and swept Puerto Rico. Regardless, both teams move on to the semifinals that start tomorrow with Bulgaria set to face Pool A runner-up Peru and Puerto Rico getting Pool A winner Portugal.

Bulgaria was the stellar side in all three main categories, notching more kills (37-25), blocks (13-6) and aces (7-2). That was all grouped together by Silvana Chausheva (13 points), who was one of three Bulgarians in double-digits for points compared to no one reaching more than seven for Puerto Rico. At the top of the losing side at that seven points was Daly Santana, who has been phenomenal for her side but was held to just seven kills on 23 tries as the Bulgarian defense held strong in the sweep.

STANDINGS:

Pool A

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Colombia	2	0	6	6	0	MAX	151	87	1.736
2	Peru	1	1	3	3	3	1.000	126	127	0.992
3	Hungary	0	2	0	0	6	0.000	90	153	0.588

Pool B

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Bulgaria	2	0	6	6	0	MAX	150	92	1.630
2	Puerto Rico	1	1	3	3	3	1.000	135	119	1.134
3	Australia	0	2	0	0	6	0.000	86	150	0.573

Full Schedule:

Pool A:

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	19:00	Peru	0–3	Colombia	24–26	12–25	12–25			48–76
21 Jun	19:00	Colombia	3–0	Hungary	25–13	25–19	25–7			75–39
22 Jun	19:00	Hungary	0–3	Peru	14–25	11–25	26–28			51–78

Pool B:

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	17:00	Australia	0–3	Bulgaria	11–25	16–25	15–25			42–75
21 Jun	17:00	Puerto Rico	3–0	Australia	25–10	25–19	25–15			75–44
22 Jun	17:00	Bulgaria	3–0	Puerto Rico	25–18	25–18	25–14			75–50

Semifinals

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
23 June	16:00	Colombia	–	Puerto Rico	–	–	–			0–0
23 June	18:00	Bulgaria	–	Peru	–	–	–			0–0

3rd place match

Final