VOLLEYBALL Preview: FIVB women’s World Championships start in Japan

A lengthy FIVB World Championships for women begins on Saturday, with 103 total matches to be played in six Japanese cities. It will start with competition with 24 teams in four pools playing from 29 September through 4 October:

∙ Pool A: Argentina, Cameroon, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands
(in Yokohama)

∙ Pool B: Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Italy, Turkey
(in Sapporo)

∙ Pool C: Azerbaijan, Korea, Russia, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, United States
(in Kobe)

∙ Pool D: Brazil, Dom. Rep., Kazakhstan, Kenya, Puerto Rico, Serbia
(in Hamamatsu)

The top four teams in each group will advance to the second round, where those 16 teams will be split into pools of eight. The second round will take place from 7-11 October, in Nagoya and Osaka; the finals aren’t until 20 October.

The top teams in the FIVB World Rankings are China, the U.S., Serbia, Brazil and Russia, but no ranking events have taken place since August of last year. In the women’s Nations League held earlier in 2018, the United States team compiled a 17-2 record and won the final, 3-2, from Turkey. China won the bronze medal, 3-0, from Brazil.

This is the 18th edition of the women’s Worlds, which began in 1952. The U.S. is the defending champion, winning its first World Championships title in 2014, beating China, 3-1, in the final, with Brazil third and Italy fourth. The Soviet Union won five titles, beginning with the first event in 1952; Russia won recently in 2006 and 2010 and Italy won in 2002.