The 2014 FIVB Women's World Championship was the seventeenth edition of the competition, contested by the 24 senior women's national teams of the members of the ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The final tournament was held from 23 September to 12 October 2014 in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

won their first world title, defeating

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in four sets at the final. Reigning Olympic champions

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

won the 3rd place match, defeating

in five sets. Kimberly Hill was selected Most Valuable Player.

Qualification

The regional qualification stage determined the 24 teams competing in the championship competition. Hosts

were granted automatic qualification. Regional governing bodies were allocated the remaining 23 spots.

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

was granted two, Asia and Oceania four, North, Central America and Caribbean six,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

two, and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

ten places (including hosts).

Squads

Venues

The tournament was played at six venues in six cities.

Format

The tournament was played in three different stages (first, second and third rounds). In the , the 24 participants were divided in four groups of six teams each. A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams group position, the four best teams of each group (total of 16 teams) progressed to the next round. In the , the 16 teams were divided in two groups of eight teams (four teams from groups A and D in one group, and four teams from groups B and C in the other group). A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams group position, matches already played between teams in the were counted in this round. The three best teams of each group (total of 6 teams) progressed to the next round. In the , the 6 teams were divided in two groups of three teams. A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams group position, the two best teams of each group (total of 4 teams) progressed to the semifinals. ;Group standing criteria: :1. Ranking points (3 points for a 3–0 or 3–1 win; 2 points for a 3–2 win; 1 point for a 2–3 loss; 0 points for a 1–3 or 0–3 loss) :2. Number of wins :3. Sets ratio :4. Points ratio :5. Head to head Source: FIVB

Pools composition

Teams were seeded in the first three positions of each pool following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of Pool A regardless of the World Ranking. All teams not seeded were drawn to take other available positions in the remaining lines, following the World Ranking. The drawing was held in

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

on 10 March 2014. Because NORCECA qualification were in progress on 10 March 2014, FIVB used the best world rankings of NORCECA when the draw was made. Ranking shown in brackets except Hosts which rank 4th.

Results

All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+02:00), 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 E ...

( UTC+02:00).

First round

Pool A

Venue:

PalaLottomatica Palazzo dello Sport or PalaEUR, formerly known as PalaLottomatica, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena in Rome, Italy. It is located in the heart of the well known modern EUR complex. The arena hosted the 1960 Olympic basketball ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Pool B

Venue: PalaTrieste,

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Pool C

Venue: PalaOlimpia,

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

Pool D

Venue: PalaFlorio,

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

Second round

The results and points of the matches between the same teams that were already played during the first round were taken into account for the second round.

Pool E

Venues: PalaFlorio,

and PalaTrieste,

Pool F

Venues: PalaOlimpia,

and

PalaPanini The PalaPanini (officially ) is an indoor arena, indoor sporting arena located in Modena, Italy. It was open in 1985 and has mainly served as the home venue for volleyball clubs based in and around Modena, with other sporting events (basketball, ...

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

Third round

Second round pool winners were placed in each third round pool, while the second and third placed teams were drawn. Venue:

Mediolanum Forum Unipol Forum (formerly the FilaForum, DatchForum and Mediolanum Forum; known as the Forum di Milano in events where commercial naming rights are prohibited) is an indoor sports arena that is located in Assago, a small town 3 km outside Milan, ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Pool G

Pool H

Final round

Venue:

Semifinals

3rd place match

Final

Final standing

Awards

* Most valuable player *: Kimberly Hill * Best setter *: Alisha Glass * Best outside spikers *: Zhu Ting *: Kimberly Hill * Fair Play *: José Roberto Guimarães * Best middle blockers *:

Thaísa Menezes Thaísa Daher de Menezes (; born 15 May 1987) is a Brazilian professional volleyball player. She won back-to-back gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She has won numerous Best Spiker and Best Blocker Awards, and is often singled o ...

*: Yang Junjing * Best opposite spiker *:

Sheilla Castro Sheilla Tavares de Castro (born 1 July 1983) is a Brazilian former volleyball player who represented Brazil at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. On both occasions the Brazilian national team won the gold medal. She also pl ...

* Best libero *: Monica De Gennaro

References

External links

Official website

FIVB VolleyWorld no. 9 / 2014
(2014 Women's World Championship edition) {{2014 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship qualification FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship International women's volleyball competitions hosted by Italy September 2014 sports events in Italy October 2014 sports events in Italy Women's volleyball in Italy