The 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship was the third and final edition of the international

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

tournament and the world championship for women's national teams under the age of 23, organized by the sport's world governing body, FIVB. The tournament was hosted by

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in the city of

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

from 10 September to 17 September 2017. 12 teams from the 5 confederations competed in the tournament.

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

defeated the

home team In sports, home is the place and venue identified with a team sport. Most professional teams are named for, and marketed to, particular metropolitan areas; amateur teams may be drawn from a particular region, or from institutions such as sc ...

in straight sets in the final to claim their first title in the competition.

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

won the bronze medal outclassing

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

4–2. Hande Baladın from Turkey was elected the

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. After this tournament, FIVB declared that "As per decision of May 2019 FIVB Board of Administration, the U23 WCH has been abolished."

Qualification

The FIVB Sports Events Council revealed a proposal to streamline the number of teams participating in the Age Group World Championships.

Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Rankings as of January 2017. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of pool A regardless of the U23 World Ranking. Rankings are shown in brackets except the hosts who ranked 10th.

Squads

Venues

Testing of new rules

The 2017 FIVB Women's U23 World Championship will be a testing ground for a new scoring scheme currently under review by the FIVB, which, if successful, could mark a historical turning point for volleyball – much as the introduction of the Rally Scoring System did in the late 1990s. Matches in Ljubljana will be played to best-of-seven sets with each set to 15 points (with at least a two-point difference needed). Three ranking points will be awarded to teams winning 4–0, 4–1 or 4–2. Two points go the winner of a 4–3 match with one point for the loser. It is hoped that the new scoring system will reduce overall duration of matches, while making each set more attractive and exciting – much as tie-breaks are under the current regulations. The interval between sets is reduced to two minutes (from three). Teams will switch ends after the second set - and also, if needed, after sets 4, 5 and 6. In addition, there will be no technical timeouts – just two regular thirty-second timeouts per team per set. The basic principles for the new scheme were tested for the first time in the Dutch League in the 2016–17 season. Further testing of the scheme were conducted at the Women's U23 World Championship in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. During and after the competition, players, coaches, referees and officials will be evaluating the new system through a questionnaire, while duration and scoring statistics will be gathered and analysed. This is the second time that a U23 World Championship serves as a testbed for new regulations. Matches of the inaugural Men's U23 World Championship in 2013 in

Uberlândia Uberlândia () is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. It is the second largest municipality in the state of Minas Gerais after the state capital Belo Horizonte. Its population in 2020 was 699,097, making it the fo ...

were played to 21-point sets. In addition to the scoring system, a new serving regulation will be tried out in Cairo, with the server not allowed to land inside the court after a jump service. The testing of the new rules has been received with criticism from the volleyball community.

Pool standing procedure

# Number of matches won # Match points # Sets ratio # Points ratio # Result of the last match between the tied teams Match won 4–0 , 4–1 or 4–2: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
Match won 4–3: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

Preliminary round

*All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

( UTC+02:00).

Pool A

Pool B

Final round

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

5th–8th places

5th–8th semifinals

7th place match

5th place match

Final four

Semifinals

3rd place match

Final

Final standing

Awards

*Most valuable player *: Hande Baladın *Best setter *: Eva Mori *Best outside spikers *: Hande Baladın *:

Madeline Guillén ''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian-American author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series a ...

*Best middle blockers *: Beyza Arici *: Saša Planinšec *Best opposite spiker *: Iza Mlakar *Best libero *: Zhana Todorova

References

External links

Official website
{{Portal bar, Volleyball, Slovenia, Sports FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship International volleyball competitions hosted by Slovenia 2017 in Slovenian women's sport September 2017 sports events in Europe Sport in Ljubljana