News

23/10/2018

VNL winners to face world champions in 2019

Lausanne, Switzerland, October 23, 2018 – The inaugural FIVB Volleyball Nations League winners – USA in the women’s competition and Russia in the men’s – will face the newly crowned FIVB Volleyball Women’s and Men’s World Championship gold medallists when the annual tournament returns for its second edition in 2019. With pool and host allocations now confirmed, 16 teams per gender have seven months to prepare for next year’s VNL.

In the women’s VNL, USA will face new world champions Serbia in Italy in week 2 from May 28-30, where hosts Italy and the Dominican Republic complete the quartet of teams. In the men’s competition, Russia take on recently crowned men's world champions Poland in Iran in week 3 Pool 11 which takes place over June 14-16, and also features hosts Iran and Canada.

The Volleyball Nations League is the highest profile annual volleyball tournament for national teams and begins with a preliminary round of five weeks of high-tempo volleyball across the world.

The first round of matches in the women’s tournament takes place from May 21-23 when the USA travel to Bulgaria to take on the hosts, Japan and Belgium. The men’s first week takes place from May 31-June 2.

The preliminary rounds will be followed by the women’s finals to be played in China from July 3 to 7. The men’s finals will take place in the United States from July 10 to 14.

In 2018 Karch Kiraly’s USA team defeated Turkey 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-15, 15-7) in Nanjing, China to claim the women’s gold, while Russia under the guidance of Sergei Shliapnikov beat finals host nation France 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-23) in Lille.

Both finals are repeated in the preliminary round in 2019. Russia take on France in the opening weekend in Serbia, where they will also take on the pool hosts and Japan. In the women’s competition, USA and Turkey renew their rivalry in week four when they also play host team China, and Poland.