2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup explained

Competition:	Women's World Cup
Other Titles:	ワールドカップバレーボール日本 2019
Continent:	World
Year:	2019
City:	Yokohama, Hamamatsu, Sapporo, Toyama, Osaka
Dates:	14–29 September
Teams:	12
Confederations:	5
Venues:	6
Cities:	5
Champions:	CHN
Title Number:	5
Second:	USA
Third:	RUS
Fourth:	BRA
Mvp:	Zhu Ting
Setter:	Ding Xia
Outside Spikers:	Zhu Ting Kelsey Robinson
Middle Blockers:	Irina Koroleva Yan Ni
Opposite Spiker:	Andrea Drews
Libero:	Wang Mengjie
Matches:	66
Best Scorer:	Nataliya Goncharova Ana Bjelica (209 points)
Best Spiker:	Zhu Ting (54.64)
Best Blocker:	Irina Koroleva (1.00)
Best Server:	Yamila Nizetich (0.53)
Best Setter:	Miya Sato (6.83)
Best Digger:	Kim Hae-ran (3.95)
Best Receiver:	Kelsey Robinson (33.13)
Website:	FIVB Volleyball World Cup 2019
Last:	2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup
Next:	2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup

The 2019 FIVB Women's World Cup was the 13th edition of the event, contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the French: [[Fédération Internationale de Volleyball]] (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The tournament was held from 14 to 29 September 2019 in Japan.^[1] This was the first time that the FIVB did not distribute Olympics places since 1991 due to Japan hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics, but points for the FIVB World Rankings were given.

China won their historic fifth title, following titles from 1981, 1985, 2003, and 2015. China surpassed Cuba's earlier record of four titles in the history of the competition. Defending their title as the reigning champions in 2015, China reigned to sweep all eleven matches in Yokohama, Sapporo and Osaka. USA and Russia complete the 2019 podium as silver medallists and bronze medallists respectively.^[2]

Zhu Ting, outside hitter and captain of the Chinese women's volleyball national team, was selected as the World Cup's MVP, retaining her title from 2015.^[3] Zhu was joined in the Dream Team by three members of the gold medal-winning Chinese side – Yan Ni as Best Middle Blocker, Wang Mengjie as Best Libero, and Ding Xia as Best Setter. Two members of the USA squad that finished second to the Chinese Team also made the Dream Team, as Kelsey Robinson and Andrea Drews won the Best Outside Spiker and Best Opposite awards, respectively. Russia's Irina Koroleva also won as Best Blocker.

Qualification

Twelve teams qualified for the competition as the top two teams of FIVB World Rankings of each continental federation on 1 January 2019. (except Japan who qualified as host, and Serbia who qualified as 2018 World Champion)

	Qualified to 2019 FIVB World Cup
	Host and 2018 World champion

Rank	Team	OG 2016	WGP 2017	WCH 2018	Total	Note
1	align=left	90	90	42	100	322	2018 World champion
2	align=left	100	100	40	80	320	AVC first team
3	align=left	80	80	38	58	256	NORCECA first team
4	align=left	50	50	50	50	200	CSV first team
5	align=left	70	50	28	50	198	CEV first team
6	align=left	50	50	32	58	190	Host
7	align=left	0	70	38	70	178	CEV second team
8	align=left	0	30	45	90	165
9	align=left	40	50	18	30	138	AVC second team
10	align=left	30	3	30	45	108	NORCECA second team
11	align=left	25	30	8	30	93	CSV second team
12	align=left	0	3	24	45	72
13	align=left	0	20	14	36	70
14	align=left	0	3	26	36	65
15	align=left	0	2	17	40	59
16	align=left	0	0	15	40	55
17	align=left	0	20	2	25	47	CAVB first team
18	align=left	0	2	12	30	44
19	align=left	0	2	22	18	42
20	align=left	5	0	2	30	37	CAVB second team

Qualified teams

Team	Confederation	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances
Team	Confederation	Qualified as	Qualified on	Total	First	Last
	AVC	Host country	31 January 2013	12	1973	2015
	CEV	World champions	20 October 2018	3	2007	2015
	AVC	World ranking for AVC	1 January 2019	10	1977	2015
	AVC	World ranking for AVC		12	1973	2015
	CAVB	World ranking for CAVB		0	–	–
	CAVB	World ranking for CAVB		5	1991	2015
¹	CEV	World ranking for CEV		8	1973	2015
	CEV	World ranking for CEV		1	1995	1995
	CSV	World ranking for CSV		9	1973	2011
	CSV	World ranking for CSV		5	1973	2015
	NORCECA	World ranking for NORCECA		10	1973	2015
	NORCECA	World ranking for NORCECA		4	2003	2015

Notes

¹ Competed as Soviet Union from 1973 to 1991; 3rd appearance as Russia.

Squads

See main article: 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup squads.

Coaches

Oldest coach: José Roberto Guimarães – 65 years and 44 days in the first game against Serbia.
Youngest coach: Jamie Morrison – 38 years and 306 days in the first game against Argentina.

Players

Appearance record: Fabiana Claudino, Prisilla Altagracia Rivera Brens, Janet Wanja, Mercy Moim, and Kim Yeon-koung participated in the World Cup four times.
Oldest player: At 38 years and 38 days, Annerys Vargas is the oldest player ever to be nominated in the tournament.
Youngest player: Bojana Gočanin is the youngest player at the age of 16 years and 354 days.
Tallest player: At 2.01 m, Yuan Xinyue and Brayelin Martínez are the tallest players ever to be nominated in the tournament.
Shortest player: At 1.60 m, Léia Silva is the shortest player ever to be nominated in the tournament.

Venues

Site	width=23%	First round	width=23%	Second round	width=23%	Third round
scope=row rowspan=4	A			Osaka
		Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium (Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka)
Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 7,000	Capacity: 8,000

scope=row rowspan=4	B			Osaka
		Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium (Edion Arena Osaka)
Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 5,000

Format

Group 1	Group 2
(Host)	(1)
(2)	(3)
(5)	(4)
(9)	(7)
(10)	(11)
(17)	(20)

The competition system of the 2019 World Cup was the single Round-Robin system. Each team played once against each of the 11 remaining teams.

The teams were divided into 2 pools of 6 teams each. In round 1, total 30 matches in 5 days, each teams played against the other teams from the same pool. For rounds 2 and 3, total 36 matches in 6 days, each team played against the teams from another pool.^[4]

Numbers in brackets denoted the FIVB World Ranking as of 1 January 2019 except the hosts who ranked 6th.

Pool standing procedure

Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most point gained per match as follows:
- Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser
- Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser
- Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser
If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order:
- Set quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all set won by the number of all sets lost.
- Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the set quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets.
- If the tie persists based on the point quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in point quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

Results

All times are Japan Standard Time .

First round

Site B

Second round

Site B

Third round

Site B

Final standing

Rank	Team
align=center
align=center
align=center
align=center	4
align=center	5
align=center	6
align=center	7
align=center	8
align=center	9
align=center	10
align=center	11
align=center	12

Team roster
Yuan Xinyue, Zhu Ting (c), Yang Hanyu, Gong Xiangyu, Wang Yuanyuan, Zeng Chunlei, Zhang Changning, Liu Xiaotong, Yao Di, Li Yingying, Zheng Yixin, Lin Li, Ding Xia, Yan Ni, Wang Mengjie, Liu Yanhan
Head coach
Lang Ping

Awards

Most valuable player

Zhu Ting

Best setter

Ding Xia

Best outside hitters

Zhu Ting

Kelsey Robinson

Best middle blockers

Irina Koroleva

Yan Ni

Best opposite hitter

Andrea Drews

Best libero

Wang Mengjie

Statistics leaders

The statistics of each group follows the vis reports P2 and P3. The statistics include 6 volleyball skills; serve, reception, set, spike, block, and dig. The table below shows the top 5 ranked players in each skill plus top scorers as of 29 September 2019.^[5]

Best Scorers

Best scorers determined by scored points from attack, block and serve.

	width=160	Player	width=20	Attacks	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Nataliya Goncharova	align=center	184	align=center	20	align=center	5	align=center	209
Ana Bjelica	align=center	187	align=center	13	align=center	9	align=center	209
align=center	3	Brayelin Martínez	align=center	181	align=center	13	align=center	3	align=center	197
align=center	4	Zhu Ting	align=center	153	align=center	16	align=center	9	align=center	178
align=center	5	Lonneke Slöetjes	align=center	156	align=center	13	align=center	2	align=center	171

Best Attackers

Best attackers determined by successful attacks in percentage.

	width=160	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Zhu Ting	align=center	153	align=center	22	align=center	105	align=center	280	align=center	54.64
align=center	2	Zhang Changning	align=center	97	align=center	28	align=center	76	align=center	201	align=center	48.26
align=center	3	Andrea Drews	align=center	105	align=center	29	align=center	91	align=center	225	align=center	46.67
align=center	4	Ksenia Parubets	align=center	113	align=center	38	align=center	98	align=center	249	align=center	45.38
align=center	5	Brayelin Martínez	align=center	181	align=center	41	align=center	177	align=center	399	align=center	45.36

Best Blockers

Best blockers determined by the average of stuff blocks per set.

	width=160	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Irina Koroleva	align=center	41	align=center	61	align=center	70	align=center	172	align=center	1.00
align=center	2	Yan Ni	align=center	34	align=center	26	align=center	59	align=center	119	align=center	0.94
align=center	3	Ekaterina Efimova	align=center	33	align=center	29	align=center	60	align=center	122	align=center	0.80
align=center	4	Chiaka Ogbogu	align=center	32	align=center	40	align=center	72	align=center	144	align=center	0.80
align=center	5	Maja Aleksić	align=center	30	align=center	38	align=center	82	align=center	150	align=center	0.68

Best Servers

Best servers determined by the average of aces per set.

	width=160	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Yamila Nizetich	align=center	20	align=center	13	align=center	79	align=center	112	align=center	0.53
align=center	2	Bethania de la Cruz	align=center	18	align=center	14	align=center	118	align=center	150	align=center	0.42
align=center	3	Juliët Lohuis	align=center	12	align=center	16	align=center	70	align=center	98	align=center	0.30
4	Zhang Changning	align=center	10	align=center	10	align=center	74	align=center	94	align=center	0.28
Ding Xia	align=center	10	align=center	6	align=center	105	align=center	121	align=center	0.28

Best Setters

Best setters determined by the average of running sets per set.

	width=160	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Miya Sato	align=center	287	align=center	4	align=center	897	align=center	1188	align=center	6.83
align=center	2	Niverka Marte	align=center	250	align=center	7	align=center	869	align=center	1126	align=center	5.81
align=center	3	Victoria Mayer	align=center	210	align=center	5	align=center	762	align=center	977	align=center	5.53
align=center	4	Macris Carneiro	align=center	219	align=center	7	align=center	579	align=center	805	align=center	5.48
align=center	5	Ding Xia	align=center	192	align=center	5	align=center	497	align=center	694	align=center	5.33

Best Diggers

Best diggers determined by the average of successful digs per set.

	width=160	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20	Receptions	width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Kim Hae-ran	align=center	158	align=center	26	align=center	15	align=center	199	align=center	3.95
align=center	2	Larysmer Martínez Caro	align=center	169	align=center	41	align=center	35	align=center	245	align=center	3.93
align=center	3	Myrthe Schoot	align=center	134	align=center	38	align=center	28	align=center	200	align=center	3.35
align=center	4	Teodora Pušić	align=center	139	align=center	38	align=center	36	align=center	213	align=center	3.16
align=center	5	Mako Kobata	align=center	129	align=center	33	align=center	27	align=center	189	align=center	3.07

Best Receivers

Best receivers determined by efficient receptions in percentage.

	width=160	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
align=center	1	Kelsey Robinson	align=center	60	align=center	5	align=center	101	align=center	166	align=center	33.13
align=center	2	Mako Kobata	align=center	59	align=center	7	align=center	105	align=center	171	align=center	30.41
align=center	3	Gabriela Guimarães	align=center	78	align=center	7	align=center	156	align=center	241	align=center	29.46
align=center	4	Gong Xiangyu	align=center	41	align=center	4	align=center	90	align=center	135	align=center	27.41
align=center	5	Yuki Ishii	align=center	63	align=center	7	align=center	139	align=center	209	align=center	26.79

Notes and References

Web site: FIVB World Cup to return to Japan in 2019 ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympics. FIVB. 20 October 2018. 5 March 2019.
Web site: China Crowned World Cup Champions Anew. FIVB. 29 September 2019. 29 September 2019.
Web site: President XI Congratulates China on Historic Win. FIVB. 30 September 2019. 30 September 2019.
Web site: Olympic and World champions to meet in World Cup . 22 June 2015 . . 13 September 2019.
Web site: Statistics . . 19 September 2019.