Everything you need to know about the VNL Women’s Finals

The eight best teams of the Volleyball Nations League 2025 Preliminary Phase are set to decide which of them will have the honor of lifting the tournament’s remodeled trophy as the champions of the seventh edition of the event this week in Łódź, Poland.

Italy, Brazil, Japan, Poland, China, Türkiye, Germany and the United States are the candidates to join the VNL hall of honor and will fight from Wednesday to Sunday for the title of the 2025 edition of the tournament.

• Watch the Volleyball Nations League Finals live on VBTV

With the climax of this year’s VNL coming up this week, here’s all you need to know about it in order to follow the action as it unfolds:

The Host City

The popular Atlas Arena, which was inaugurated in 2009 and can host over 13,000 fans, will be the stage for the decisive stage of the Volleyball Nations League 2025.

The city of Łódź is a hub for volleyball in Poland, being home to two teams in the country’s TAURON Liga. Over the last 15 years, the city has hosted numerous international events, including the 2014 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship, the 2022 FIVB Women’s World Championship, the 2023 Women’s Olympic Qualifier, the 2019 European Championship and stops of the Volleyball Nations League.

Match Schedule

The VNL 2025 Finals will be held from Wednesday to Sunday, with eight matches scheduled to take place in this period. The four quarterfinals will be split between the first two days – Italy and the United States play at 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT) and Poland and China meet at 20:00 (18:00 GMT) on Wednesday, while Japan and Türkiye appear in the first match and Brazil and Germany battle on the second one on Thursday.

Friday will be a day off, so teams can rest and prepare for the semifinals, which are going to be held on Saturday, at 16:00 (14:00 GMT) and 20:00 (18:00 GMT). The semifinal losers will play for bronze on Sunday, at 16:00 (14:00 GMT), while the winners face off in the gold medal match, at 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

The Quarterfinal Matchups

Italy vs. USA

Defending champions Italy, which also won the title in 2022, finished first in the Preliminary Phase with a perfect campaign of 12 victories and are the only national team – men or women - to get the Finals undefeated in 2025. The Italians are successfully building from a fantastic 2024 season, in which they gold at both the VNL and the Paris Olympics, and head coach Julio Velasco brought back ten of the 13 players who represented the country in the French capital last year, including Olympic MVP opposite Paola Egonu, team captain and middle blocker Anna Danesi, star libero Monica De Gennaro and setter Alessia Orro.

"Regardless of what we did in the Preliminary Phase, our goal here is to take it one match at a time and not put more pressure where we already have," opposite Ekaterina Antropova reacted. "It is important to recognize what we can do as a team, but not to think too much about it. We want to just focus on volleyball and never underestimate any team. We have never done that, and that's another of our strengths. Everyone is motivated to play us."

Egonu, who was also the MVP of last year’s VNL, was the top Italian scorer in the Preliminary Phase with 171 points, good enough to place her in 10^th place in the tournament’s table. Ranking sixth among the tournament’s top defenders with 120 digs, De Gennaro is another individual standout for the defending champions heading into the Finals.

The United States, which won three straight VNL titles in 2018, 2019 and 2021, were the last team to book their tickets to Łódź, ranking eighth in the Preliminary Phase with seven wins and five losses. The Americans are going through massive changes in 2025 as they not only have just three players who won silver at last year’s Paris Olympics – setter Jordyn Poulter, outside hitter Avery Skinner and middle blocker Dana Rettke - in their roster, but also have a new head coach in Erik Sullivan.

One of the new faces in the team, outside hitter Sarah Franklin was the top American scorer in the Preliminary Phase, with 135 points registered. Skinner only appeared in three matches in the VNL 2025 so far, but was in excellent form, producing 61 points in those encounters.

"There's been a lot of ups and downs, which comes with the first year after the Olympics and the beginning of the quad," Skinner said. "We have a lot of veterans who are not with the team now, but it's been a good opportunity to get some younger girls to play. So, it was about learning and evolving each week, and I think we've done that. It's important for us to be in the Finals, and our goal is to keep working on our team."

The Italians have been successful against the Americans in recent years, having won the last four encounters between the teams, three of them with sweeps, including last year’s Paris Olympics gold medal match and this year’s duel in the VNL Preliminary Phase.

Poland vs. China

Poland entered the VNL 2025 already guaranteed in the Finals as the host country, but still produced the fourth-best campaign in the tournament, with nine wins and three losses. Head coach Stefano Lavarini was able to keep most of the core of the team that took the country back to the Olympics last year in Paris, returning nine Olympians, including team captain and middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk, opposite Magdalena Stysiak, outside hitter Martyna Łukasic and libero Aleksandra Szczygłowska.

"Łódź has been somewhat of a magical place for us," Stysiak said. "We have some really good memories from winning the Olympic qualifier two years ago in front of the incredible fans here. We're looking forward to playing some good volleyball here. It's a special feeling to be able to play in the Finals at home, and we want to perform well and win."

Stysiak and Łukasic led the Polish offense in the Preliminary Phase, registering 149 and 141 points, respectively. The outside hitter ranks fourth in serving in the VNL with 17 aces, the same spot occupied by Szczygłowska in the defense rankings – she has 126 digs.

Their opponents China ranked fifth in the Preliminary Phase with the same nine wins and three losses, but fewer points (27 to 24). The Asians entered 2025 with a new coach in Zhao Yong and brought younger players into their squad, but kept some of the pillars from recent seasons, such as opposite Gong Xiangyu, middle blocker Wang Yuanyuan, and libero Wang Mengjie.

Outside hitter Wu Mengjie scored 230 points in the Preliminary Phase and ranks second in the entire VNL – fellow outside hitter Zhuang Yushan is fourth with 205. One of the new faces brought in by Yong, 16-year-old setter Zhang Zixuan leads the tournament in her position with 372 successful actions.

"I'm very satisfied with the team performance so far," Gong commented. "In the third week, especially, the team played very well and got to win some close matches, which we had lost in the first two. I'm also very happy about the team spirit. Last week we got to play Poland in a friendly match and we won just one set. We'll try to play at our best in the quarterfinals because they are a great team."

The last five official matches involving the teams had three Chinese victories and two Polish triumphs. The Europeans, however, won both the team’s duel in the opening week of the VNL 2025 and a friendly match held last week.

Japan vs. Türkiye

Last year’s VNL silver medalists Japan produced the third-best campaign in the Preliminary Phase in 2025, getting nine wins and three losses. New head coach Ferhat Akbas selected star outside hitter Mayu Ishikawa as the new team captain and continued to rely on some of the players who led the Asians in the last few seasons, such as setter Nanami Seki, opposite Yukiko Wada and libero Manami Kojima.

"Türkiye have a great team and it's not going to be easy against them," outside hitter Megumi Fukazawa stated. "We'll try to do our best, especially on defense, which is probably our main strength. We'll try to play as one, as we have been doing in the VNL."

Wada scored 180 points during the Preliminary Phase and was the team’s leading scorer, followed by outside hitter Yoshino Sato, who registered 166. Seki ranks fourth in the VNL among the setters with 317 successful actions and Ishikawa is second in passes (95) and fifth in aces (16).

Türkiye got eight wins and four losses in the Preliminary Phase and ended it with the fifth-best campaign. Outside of captain Eda Erdem, who was given some time off by head coach Daniele Santarelli, the team continues to feature the players that led the Turkish to winning gold in the VNL 2023, most notably opposite Melissa Vargas, outside hitter Ebrar Karakurt, middle blocker Zehra Güneş and setter Cansu Özbay.

"We're very happy to be back in the VNL Finals," libero Simge Aköz added. "We used many different lineups over the first three weeks, and I think that led us to having some ups and downs, which is normal. We had some days to prepare for the Finals, and we tried to keep our team energy elevated during this period. We know we're capable of doing great things here, and we'll try to show our best on the court."

Vargas was, unsurprisingly, Türkiye’s leading scorer in the Preliminary Phase with 120 points – outside hitter Yaprak Erkek came next with 106. The star opposite also ranked eighth in aces, with 12.

Türkiye came out on top in three of the last five matches between the teams, but the Japanese triumphed in the tie-breaker in their most recent encounter, in the VNL 2024.

Brazil vs. Germany

Brazil were the second-best team in the VNL 2025 Preliminary Phase, trailing only leaders Italy, with 11 victories and one loss. Outside hitters Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães and Ana Cristina Souza, setters Macris Carneiro and Roberta Ratzke and opposite Rosamaria Montibeller continue to figure as top selections for longtime head coach José ‘Zé Roberto’ Guimarães after helping the team take bronze at last year's Paris Olympics.

"The first three weeks were really good for us," Gabi reflected. "We're super excited to be here and have a chance to play in Poland, a country where people love volleyball and support the sport so much. Everyone here wants to win and it's the same for us. We have a very difficult first match against Germany and this is the first step for us to get to the semifinals."

Ana Cristina was the team’s top scorer in the Preliminary Phase with 167 points, but she won’t be available during the Finals after going down with a knee injury. Julia Kudiess has been in a class of her own when it comes to blocking and leads the VNL with 53 stops. Outside hitter Julia Bergmann, fifth in passes (66) and eighth in aces (12), has also proved to be a key player for the South Americans.

Germany are set to make their second appearance in the VNL Finals after ranking seventh in the Preliminary Phase with seven wins and five losses. New head coach Giulio Bregoli has been using outside hitter Lina Alsmeier, opposite Emilia Weske, middle blocker and team captain Camilla Weitzel and libero Anna Pogany to form the core of the team in the tournament.

"Making it to the Finals was a big goal for us, and we're happy that we took that first step," Weitzel remarked. "It was a really exciting journey for us. Now we're just going to take it one match at a time. Brazil are a very strong opponent. We played them in the first week and it was a very close match. Now we'll see if we can turn that 3-2 loss around. We'll need to be at our highest level just to stay in the game and I think that serving will be key for us."

Alsmeier has been a key offensive weapon for the Europeans, having sixth in the VNL in points scored with 193 – she’s equally as important on the backcourt and tops the receivers table with 106 passes. Weitzel is the second-best server in the tournament, with 19 aces registered, and appears in seventh place among the blockers with 30 stops, ranking below fellow middle blocker Anastasia Cekulaev, who’s fourth with 35.

Brazil has defeated Germany in the last five official matches between the teams and triumphed in the team’s most recent encounter, getting a 3-2 victory in the VNL 2025. The Europeans, however, came out on top in a friendly match held in 2022.

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