Italy, China Joins Serbia in Final 6; United States Still Not Clinched

  0 Braden Keith | October 10th, 2018 | Asian Volleyball, Brazilian Volleyball, European volleyball, International Volleyball, News, NORCECA volleyball, South American Volleyball, U.S. Women's Volleyball

2018 FIVB WOMEN’S Volleyball WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Italy and China have joined Serbia as having clinched their spots in the Final 6 of the 2018 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship tournament. Along with Serbia, who qualified on Tuesday and proceeded to lose their first sets, and match, of the tournament on Wednesday, with Tijana Boskovic on the bench for most of the day, that makes half of the Final 6 field set.

The remaining teams fighting for 2 spots in Pool E are Japan, Netherlands, and Brazil; while there are 2 teams fighting for 1 spot in Pool F: the US and Russia. The US, in spite of suffering their first loss of the entire tournament on Wednesday, is still on the brink of not advancing, depending on the outcome of Thursdays matches.

Teams In to the Final 6:

  • #3 Serbia
  • #7 Italy
  • #1 China

Teams Whose Fates Are Undecided:

  • #2 United States
  • #4 Brazil
  • #5 Russia
  • #6 Japan
  • #8 Netherlands

Teams Eliminated From Contention:

  • #9 Dominican Republic
  • #12 Turkey
  • #13 Germany
  • #13 Puerto Rico
  • #16 Thailand
  • #17 Bulgaria
  • #24 Azerbaijan
  • #26 Mexico

Based on FIVB World Rankings.

While the way the schedule was set up left some uninspiring matches early in round 2, it has created lots of drama at the end.

In Pool E, Japan’s big win over Serbia was a huge boost to their chances.

Matches Pts Sets Points
Rank Team W L W L Ratio W L Ratio
1  Serbia (Adv.) 7 1 21 22 3 7.333 621 457 1.359
2  Japan 7 1 21 23 6 3.833 697 563 1.238
3  Netherlands 7 1 21 23 6 3.833 681 586 1.162
4  Brazil 6 2 18 20 9 2.222 683 542 1.260
5  GermanyX 5 3 14 16 12 1.333 666 639 1.042
6  Dominican RepublicX 4 4 13 14 12 1.167 571 528 1.081
7  Puerto RicoX 2 6 6 7 18 0.389 522 598 0.873
8  MexicoX 1 7 3 5 21 0.238 489 631 0.775

Serbia and the Netherlands play first, so Japan and Brazil will know exactly what they need to do to advance.

To advance, Japan needs:

  • 1 set win over Brazil

To advance, the Netherlands needs:

  • 1 set win over Serbia (which feels more likely now that Serbia has clinched their spot in the Final 6)

AND

  • 1 more set win than Japan (because it’s unlikely that the Netherlands will catch Brazil or Japan in points ratio), OR
  • A Japanese win

To advance, Brazil needs:

  • A 3-0 sweep over Japan

(Brazil has a nearly-insurmountable lead in points ratio over Netherlands, but not over Japan)

In Pool F, the US has to play an already-qualified Italy, and Russia has to play an already-qualified China, to advance. The US and Italy play first, so Russia may know if they’re eliminated before their match begins. The Americans still control their own destinies.

Matches Pts Sets Points
Rank Team W L W L Ratio W L Ratio
1  Italy 8 0 24 24 2 12.000 643 458 1.404
2  China 7 1 21 22 4 5.500 636 520 1.223
3  United States 7 1 19 21 8 2.625 663 563 1.178
4  Russia 6 2 18 21 9 2.333 691 586 1.179
5  Turkey 4 4 12 12 14 0.857 566 546 1.037
6  Thailand 3 5 11 15 19 0.789 689 729 0.945
7  Bulgaria 3 5 8 11 18 0.611 599 663 0.903
8  Azerbaijan 2 6 6 8 19 0.421 571 631 0.905

To Advance, the United State needs:

  • A win of any score; OR
  • A Russia loss of any score

To Advance, Russia needs:

  • An American loss of any score; AND
  • A Russia win of any score

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of VolleyMob.com. Braden's first foray into sports journalism came in 2010, when he launched a swimming website called The Swimmers' Circle. Two years later, he joined SwimSwam.com as a co-founder. Long huge fans of volleyball, when Braden and the SwimSwam partners sought an opportunity to …

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