2017 FIVB VOLLEYBALL WORLD GRAND PRIX – GROUP 1 DAILY RECAP

Group 1

July 7th – August 6th

FIVB World Grand Prix Round 1

Schedule/Results

Serbia and the United States have risen to the top of the standings at the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix Group 1.

Serbia has gotten there with a perfect 9-0 set run through the first weekend of action in Ankara. On average, they’ve given up just over 18 points per set, with no single opponent scoring more than 20.

Two of those matches were expected to be comfortable for the Serbians. Belgium and Turkey have a combined 1 Olympic appearance and just 5 World Championship appearance in their histories. The other was a dominant 3-0 performance against Brazil, albeit not a full-strength Brazilian squad, on Saturday.

The Americans’ journey has been more impressive in terms of opponent quality, though they’ve given up a few sets. They beat Russia 3-2 to open, swept Italy, and most impressively swept the defending Olympic champions from China 3-0. That’s been done with a squad that has only 2 of their Olympians on it, and is closer to a college all-star team than what American fans would recognize as the National Team.

That China win, though, must be taken with a grain of salt – as the Olympic MVP Zhu Ting didn’t play at all. She’s come in late to each of China’s first two matches and been dominant, lifting them to wins in both. There was no late heroics from Zhu on Sunday, though. Keep in mind that as the hosts of the Final 6, China doesn’t need to win anything – they get a free pass through to the last round.

The biggest surprise on Sunday was the Dutch, 4th at last year’s Olympics, being upset by Japan. In normal circumstances, that should be a very close and competitive match (and it was, Japan won 3-2), but Japan hasn’t played well this week, and the ‘transitive property of sports’ indicated a Dutch win was coming. The Dutch swept the Dominican earlier in the week, and the Dominican beat Japan 3-1 on Saturday; the Dutch also swept Thailand, while Thailand push Japan to 5 sets.

But after Sarina Koga played just 1 set in the Japan loss to the Dominican, she returned to action on Sunday with 22 points, and that made the difference for Japan.

Remember that, besides interim prizes awarded for pool wins and match results, the big prizes come to those who advance to the Final 6. All teams’ records, regardless of pool, are put into one big table that determines who will advance.

Group 1 Table After Day 3

Matches Pts Sets Points Rank Team W L W L Ratio W L Ratio 1 3 0 9 9 0 MAX 225 163 1.380 2 3 0 8 9 2 4.500 262 225 1.164 3 2 1 7 8 3 2.667 250 224 1.116 4 2 1 6 6 5 1.200 261 254 1.028 5 2 1 5 6 5 1.200 244 237 1.030 6 2 1 5 6 6 1.000 268 274 0.978 7 2 1 4 7 7 1.000 300 294 1.020 8 1 2 4 5 7 0.714 248 267 0.929 9 1 2 2 4 8 0.500 267 280 0.954 10 0 3 3 6 9 0.667 319 337 0.947 11 0 3 1 3 9 0.333 239 278 0.860 12 0 3 0 1 9 0.111 198 248 0.798

Ranking system:

Number of matches won Match points Sets ratio Points ratio If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.

Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser

Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

DAY 1, 2 & 3 RESULTS (WITH LINKS TO FULL STATS):

Pool A1

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 7 Jul 16:30 Turkey 0–3 19–25 17–25 15–25 51–75 P2 P3 7 Jul 19:30 Belgium 0–3 22–25 23–25 18–25 63–75 P2 P3 8 Jul 16:30 Brazil 0–3 19–25 20–25 19–25 58–75 P2 P3 8 Jul 19:30 Turkey 3–1 Belgium 23–25 25–20 25–20 25–16 98–81 P2 P3 9 Jul 16:30 Serbia 3–0 Belgium 25–18 25–18 25–18 75–54 P2 P3 9 Jul 19:30 Turkey 2–3 26–24 17–25 18–25 25–22 13–15 99–111 P2 P3

Pool B1

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 7 Jul 15:00 United States 3–2 Russia 22–25 25–19 25–27 25–16 15–11 112–98 P2 P3 7 Jul 19:00 China 3–1 Italy 25–20 20–25 25–23 25–20 95–88 P2 P3 8 Jul 15:00 Italy 0–3 21–25 22–25 19–25 62–75 P2 P3 8 Jul 19:00 China 3–2 Russia 24–26 25–21 16–25 27–25 16–14 108–111 P2 P3 9 Jul 15:00 Russia 2–3 21–25 29–27 26–24 24–26 10–15 110–117 P2 P3 9 Jul 19:00 China 0–3 22–25 22–25 21–25 65–75 P2 P3



Pool C1

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 7 Jul 17:30 Netherlands 3–0 Dominican Republic 25–21 25–19 25–21 75–61 P2 P3 7 Jul 20:30 Japan 3–2 Thailand 25–19 18–25 25–14 22–25 15–9 105–92 P2 P3 8 Jul 17:30 Netherlands 3–0 Thailand 25–20 26–24 25–16 76–60 P2 P3 8 Jul 20:30 Dominican Republic 3–1 Japan 25–20 25–19 24–26 29–27 103–92 P2 P3 9 Jul 17:30 Netherlands 2–3 25–17 25–21 18–25 22–25 9–15 99–103 P2 P3 9 Jul 20:30 Thailand 1–3 22–25 25–22 22–25 18–25 87–97 P2 P3

Full Videos and Highlights

Serbia def. Belgium 3-0

Brazil def. Turkey 3-2

Italy def. Russia 3-2

United States def. China 3-0

Japan def. Netherlands 3-2

Dominican Republic def. Thailand 3-1