The U19 World Championship will get underway at 15:15 local time (13:15 UTC) on Wednesday with four simultaneous matches on the two competition courts in Osijek and the two in Vrnjacka Banja. In Croatia, Egypt and Canada will open Pool A for business, while Bulgaria and Poland lock horns in a big all-European clash in Pool C. Argentina and Puerto Rico will get Pool B underway in Serbia, while Japan and Belgium will meet in Pool D’s opening game.
The 24 participating teams were split into four single round-robin pools of six for the pool stage of the championship to be played over the first five competition days. Pool A features the teams of Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Mexico and Thailand. Pool B is composed of Argentina, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Serbia. Bulgaria, Peru, Poland, Spain, Turkiye and USA will compete in Pool C. Belgium, Chile, China, Italy, Japan and Tunisia are the members of Pool D.
The top four teams from each of the four pools will progress to the eighthfinals. The remaining eight teams, those that finish fifth or sixth in their pools, will move on to the playoffs for the distribution of the places from 17th to 24th. In the playoff phase of the tournament, each win means advancement to the upper tier of the next stage in the bracket and each loss means moving down to the lower tier of the next stage in the bracket until the final classification matches on July 12 and 13, which will fill up the places from first to 24th in the final standings.
The pool stage will be held from July 2 to July 7, with a rest day on Saturday, July 5. The eighthfinals will be played on July 8. Following two days without matches, when some of the teams will travel from one venue to the other, the quarterfinals will take place on July 11, the semifinals – on July 12, and the medal matches – on July 13.
On all competition courts and all competition days (except for the last one), the matches will start at 15:15 local time (13:15 UTC), 18:15 (16:15) and 21:15 (19:15). On Sunday, July 13, there will be only two classification matches per court – at 15:15 and at 18:15, to determine the final standings from first to 16th place. The playoffs for the distribution of the places from 17th to 24th will be completed on Saturday, July 12.
The previous 18 editions of the youth girls’ world championships were held from 1989 to 2023. While Serbia will host the event for the first time, it will be the second consecutive and third overall time for Croatia. The Adriatic country welcomed the 2001 tournament to Pula and Rijeka, and Osijek co-hosted the 2023 edition with the Hungarian city of Szeged.
While China are the leaders with four U19 girls’ world titles won in the history of the competition, Brazil have collected the highest number of medals – 10 (three gold, four silver, three bronze). Russia (also as the Soviet Union) have won three titles as well, while Italy, Japan and reigning champions USA have claimed two each.
The list of past Most Valuable Player awardees in the history of the U19 Girls’ World Championships features the likes of Brazil’s Natalia Pereira, China’s Yuan Xinyue or Italy’s Paola Egonu among athletes who went on to shine as top international stars in senior women’s volleyball. Who will it be this time...?
