Standings Update: France, Russia, USA Are Set for #VNL Final Six

2018 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League – Week 5

May 25 – July 8, 2018
Schedule/Results

Coming into Friday’s action, the United States needed one point to secure its spot in the VNL Final Six and the Americans got just that with a five-set loss to top seeded France.

Russia also earned the right to plan its trip to Lille, France, with a sweep of Italy. The victory moved the Russians to 10-3 on the tournament, meaning that the Italians, which are currently in seventh place in the standings at 7-6, cannot match their win tally.

Despite the loss, the Italians are not out of the race, but must win both of its remaining matches, versus France and the United States, and have help to reach the Final Six.

Brazil, Poland and Serbia, all 9-4, will have something to say about that, as the three need just one win apiece over the final two matches to secure their own spots in the finals.

Friday’s results knocked several teams out of the contention as nine wins became the minimum for reaching the Final Six, leaving just the current Top 6 and Italy.

A Canadian loss to Serbia and a Japanese loss to China left the teams at 6-7. Despite being out of the race, Germany still fought tooth and nail to rally for a five-set win over Bulgaria.

Four of the day’s eight matches were over in sweeps, with Poland and Brazil snapping three-match losing skids, and Serbia and Russia also keeping pace with 3-0 wins.

China’s Chuan Jiang was the top scorer of the day, notching 26 points in the team’s four-set win over Japan. Three players surpassed the 20-point plateau in the five-setter between France and the USA: Matt Anderson (23) and Aaron Russell (21) for the Americans and Stephen Boyer (21) for the French.

Standings

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L	Pts	W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	France	11	2	32	35	13	2.692	1152	1012	1.138
2	Russia	10	3	31	33	11	3.000	1065	960	1.109
3	United States	10	3	30	34	16	2.125	1154	1041	1.109
4	Brazil	9	4	27	31	17	1.824	1116	1045	1.068
5	Poland	9	4	26	28	16	1.750	1052	963	1.092
6	Serbia	9	4	23	27	22	1.227	1086	1072	1.013
7	Italy	7	6	21	27	25	1.080	1171	1149	1.019
8	Canada	6	7	18	21	24	0.875	1069	1096	0.975
9	Germany	6	7	19	24	27	0.889	1121	1137	0.986
10	Japan	6	7	15	22	31	0.710	1136	1188	0.956
11	Iran	5	8	16	23	27	0.852	1147	1165	0.985
12	Bulgaria	5	8	15	22	29	0.759	1106	1151	0.961
13	Australia	5	8	14	20	29	0.690	1088	1169	0.931
14	China	3	10	9	14	33	0.424	1024	1124	0.911
15	Argentina	2	11	9	17	33	0.515	1100	1175	0.936
16	South Korea	1	12	5	9	36	0.250	946	1086	0.871