#VNL Week 5/Pool 19 Preview: Italy Needs a Miracle in Week 5

2018 FIVB WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL NATIONS LEAGUE – WEEK 5/Pool 19

• June 12th-14th, 2018
• PalaSele, Eboli, Italy (Capacity: 8,000)
• Time Zone: GMT +2 (U.S. Eastern Time +6)
• FIVB World Ranks: #4 Brazil, #7 Italy, #16 Thailand, #13 Belgium

SCHEDULE

STANDINGS

Brazil is locked as “in” for the Final 6 with their 10 wins. Belgium and Thailand are formally eliminated from the next stage of the tournament, Belgium is safe from the relegation playoff, and Thailand is all-but-safe.

That leaves Italy, who will be in a furious bustle to sweep their 3 matches and earn full points. If they do so, then if one among Serbia, Turkey, or the Netherlands fail to win any matches this week, Italy advances to the Final 6.

In other words: one team is significantly more motivated this week than the other three, and that’s even without having mentioned that the Italians are playing in front of a home crowd, near to the region where team captain Cristina Chirichella grew up.

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	United States	11	1	34	35	5	7.000	986	795	1.240
2	Brazil*	10	2	28	32	15	2.133	1086	972	1.117
3	Serbia	9	3	28	32	14	2.286	1067	946	1.128
4	Turkey	9	3	28	32	14	2.286	1058	970	1.091
5	Netherlands	9	3	26	30	14	2.143	1028	907	1.133
6	Italy*	7	5	21	25	20	1.250	976	933	1.046
7	China	6	6	20	24	19	1.263	948	887	1.069
8	Russia	6	6	18	20	24	0.833	958	976	0.982
9	Poland	6	6	17	22	24	0.917	1034	971	1.065
10	Japan	6	6	16	20	23	0.870	920	956	0.962
11	Germany	5	7	14	19	26	0.731	963	1011	0.953
12	South Korea	5	7	14	16	25	0.640	856	915	0.936
13	Belgium*	3	9	9	14	29	0.483	880	989	0.890
14	Dominican Republic	2	10	8	12	30	0.400	819	982	0.834
15	Thailand*	2	10	7	15	32	0.469	1009	1088	0.927
16	Argentina	0	12	0	2	36	0.056	654	944	0.693

*Denotes teams in Pool 16

POOL PREVIEW

As mentioned above, there’s one team that will be full-bore for this week’s tournament. The rest of the teams will be playing for pride, positioning, preparation, and playing time.

There’s two teams in this pool that are among the best 5 in the world. Italy, who has proven that by running off 5-straight victories, and Brazil, who have won 10 of 11 losing only to the U.S. last week, will square off in the finale on Thursday. Brazil will be hampered by an injury to outside hitter Drussyla Costa, who is the team’s 5th-best scorer in the tournament so far with 91 points. Italy matches that absence, though, with one from starting outside hitter Miriam Sylla, their 2nd-leading scorer.

What’s left should be a spectacle, possibly with big implications for Italy, that features two of the world’s best scorers: Tandara Caixeta and Paola Egonu. Assuming both teams are still using their best lineups by then, this will be the match-of-the-week.

STORYLINES TO WATCH

• Belgium – Belgium’s hitting percentage, with which they’ve struggled all tournament, improved in week 4, hitting about 40% in their matches against Germany, Argentina, and Poland. Now the challenge will be to build on that momentum against a higher level of opponent in week 5.
• Brazil – Will Brazil be spooked by the injury to Drussyla? Or will they go full-bore to try and lock up the #2 seed? We’d guess somewhere in between, maybe trying to pull out some victories over Belgium and Thailand with stars on the bench, and bringing them on for crunch time moments.
• Italy – We don’t know why Myriam Sylla is absent, who Italy will replace her with at the outside, why they’re carrying only 3 outside hitters, and where Serena Ortolani fits into it. What we do know is that Paola Egonu is backing-up her breakout summer of 2017 in the 2 weeks since rejoining Italy, and captain Cristina Chirichella will be motivated with what she joked would be practically her entire family in attendance.
• Thailand – Thailand are reeling on 6-straight losses coming into week 5, but they have managed to keep errors low and hitting percentage high. They’ve been struggling to to put up any sort of formative block, though. Only 4 teams have fewer blocks in the tournament than do Thailand (87). Pleumjit Thinkaow leads the team with 42.