During the first two VNL competition weeks, the world champions had dropped to number four and even number five in the chart, but their four wins in the four matches of the third week lifted them back up, right below ranking leaders Poland. Italy picked up 8.19 points with their victory over Brazil, another 6.46 with the clean sweep of Slovenia and 5.45 from downing Japan. The five-set battle with Canada brought Italy only 0.01 points towards a new total of 370.01 points, which means 1.22 points clear of United States, who dropped to third despite winning the Preliminary Phase of the competition.
World’s number one Poland also finished the Preliminary Phase on four wins in week three, over Japan (6.69), Brazil (6.60), Canada (1.52) and Slovenia (0.67), and collected a total of 15.47 points to solidify their top position on a new total of 389.75 points.
USA were able to compensate for their five-set loss to Argentina (-8.47) with wins over France (8.55), Cuba (2.86) and Bulgaria (1.04) for a net gain of 3.97, but not enough to fend off rising Italy from the second place.
Previous number three Brazil are now down to number four on 353.75 points, after last week’s net drop of 8.62 points, following their losses to Italy (-8.19) and Poland (-6.60), and wins over the Netherlands (4.60) and China (1.58).
The next four positions in the World Ranking remained unchanged with France, Japan, Argentina, Slovenia and Serbia lining up from fifth to ninth.
