Previous leader Serbia now down to number five
Published 04:18, 07 Jun 2023
The first competition week in the women’s Volleyball Nations League 2023 shook up the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Ranking and Brazil emerged as the new number-one-ranked national team in the world, heading a big reshuffle at the top. USA and China also moved up to complete the top three.
Interestingly, Brazil actually lost points during the first week of VNL action, but thanks to the previous number one and two teams – Serbia and Italy – losing even more, the South Americans floated from the third place to the top position. After losing their VNL opener to China, the Brazilians dropped 7.4 ranking points and, even though they followed up with wins over the Netherlands, Dominican Republic and Croatia, they only recovered 5.54 points combined towards a new total of 378.94.
Reigning world champions Serbia, who were the number one team at the start of VNL 2023, suffered four defeats during the first week and that cost them as many as 46.54 points as well as four positions in the World Ranking. They are now down to number five on a total of 346.09 points. Meanwhile defending VNL champions Italy started with a victory, but followed up with three defeats, losing a net of 33.42 points and dropping two positions from second to fourth.
United States and China went through week one undefeated and took advantage of the situation to jump up two positions each. The Americans gained 16.85 points to climb to number two on a total of 370.71, while the Asians gained 21.26 points to rise to third on 359.52.
Poland were the only other VNL participant to rise two spots in the chart. After also winning all four of their matches, the leaders in the VNL standings after week one ascended from 10th to eighth.
Pool hosts Japan and Türkiye finished the week on a 3-1 win-loss record each, but the Europeans gained enough points to overtake the Asians in the World Ranking and prompt a switch of positions six and seven between the two teams.
Germany were the only other team from the VNL to move in the upward direction, from number 13 to number 12, overtaking the Netherlands.
Canada, Thailand and Bulgaria stayed where they were, lining up from 14th to 16th in that order. Dominican Republic descended from ninth to 10th, while Korea and Croatia suffered the biggest drops after Serbia, by three spots each, down to 26th and 30th, respectively.
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