The FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Ranking has a new leader after the end of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 Preliminary Phase. After reigning world champions Serbia were the world’s number one team before the start of the VNL and then Brazil took over after competition week one, now reigning Olympic champions United States have conquered the top.
VNL 2023
USA top women’s World Ranking after VNL Preliminary Phase
Italy back to second, previous leaders Brazil now down to number three
Published 02:26, 04 Jul 2023
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV
At the beginning of the season, the Americans were fourth in the Ranking, but twelve VNL matches later, of which they won ten, they have improved by 17.87 points to a new total of 371.73, enough for taking the number one position. USA’s largest single gain of 11.10 points came from their straight-set victory over Brazil at the end of competition week two. However, both defeats were pretty costly for the Americans, as they dropped 8.68 points for losing to Japan and another 7.91 for losing their last match to China on Sunday.
Italy, on the other hand, returned to the second place, which they held before the VNL, after sinking to fourth following the heavy loss of points during competition week one. The defending VNL champions went through the Preliminary Phase on a positive 8-4 win-loss record, however, they suffered a net loss of points. While the 12.67 points they picked up with their eight victories were not enough to offset the 37.78 points they dropped with their four defeats, they were enough to bring Italy back up to number two on a new total of 366.00.
Brazil also returned to the number three position they had before the VNL, but their journey during the Preliminary Phase first took them up the Ranking to number one and then back down. Their losses to China, USA, Canada and Türkiye amounted to a total loss of 43.15 points, way more than the 17.15 points they gained from the eight victories towards the current total of 354.81.
Starting off with four consecutive losses, pre-VNL leaders Serbia dropped to number five after week one and managed to come back up to number four after the end of the Preliminary Phase. The biggest loss of 15.13 points they suffered from the defeat at the hands of Poland, while the biggest gain of 7.41 points came from the win over China. After a net loss of 46.90 points during the VNL, the Serbs have 345.74 in fourth place.
The top 10 is completed by Türkiye, up two spots from their pre-VNL seventh, China (down from fifth to sixth), Poland (up from tenth to seventh with a net gain of 59.14 points), Japan (down from sixth to eighth), Dominican Republic (gaining 7.46 points, but staying in ninth) and the Netherlands (up from twelfth to tenth on a net gain of 16.11 points).
