The 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup was held from August 22 to September 6 in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The tournament was a qualification process for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

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 ...

. The top two ranked teams,

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 ...

and

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, qualified for the Olympics, and joined

as they had already secured a berth as the host country.

Information

The FIVB Volleyball World Cup began with signing a contract between

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball The International Volleyball Federation commonly known by the acronym FIVB (''Fédération Internationale de Volleyball''). Is the international sports governing body, governing body for all forms of volleyball. Its headquarters are located in ...

(FIVB) and

Japan Volleyball Association The Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) is the governing body for volleyball in Japan. It was founded in 1927, and has been a member of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, FIVB since 1951. It is also a member of the Asian Volleyball Confede ...

(JVA) for hosting the tournament on 31 January 2013. In this event, Fuji TV had the right to broadcast the tournament. Moreover, the FIVB released the qualification process of the tournament: # Host country # 2014 World champions # 2 teams per Continental confederation considered by World ranking, Continental ranking, or Continental championship But, on 10 March 2015, the FIVB announced a change of the continental events following each continental confederation's agreement. # AVC used the World ranking as of 1 January 2015. #

CAVB The African Volleyball Confederation (French: ''Confédération Africaine de Volleyball'', or CAVB) is the continental governing body for the sports of volleyball in Africa. Its headquarters are located in Rabat, Morocco. Profile The CAVB wa ...

used the African Championship. # CEV used the European ranking as of 1 January 2015. # CSV held a qualification tournament. #

NORCECA The North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) is the international governing body for the sports of volleyball in Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean. NORCECA is the continental confederation that r ...

used the 2015 NORCECA Champion Cup (Final Four).

Changes

# Olympics places
Only the winners and runners-up of the competition could secure the berths in the 2016 Olympic Games. It was different from last edition which three medalists teams joined the Olympics. # Qualification format
The 2015 World Cup changed the format of the competition following the information above. There were not 2 wild card teams like 2011 edition. One of these spots belonged to the World champions, the other one belonged to the 2nd place of a continental event (2011 edition gave tickets to 4 of 5 continents, but 2015 edition gave tickets to all 5 continents). # Competition format
Competition rounds decreased from 4 in 2011 to 3. Combining rounds 1 (3 days) and 2 (2 days) in 2011 to 1 round of 5 days. The hosts also reduced the venues from 8 to 6. # Pool ranking criteria
In 2011 edition, match points was the first criterion, but 2015 changed it to number of matches won. All criteria are shown in section

Pool standing procedure Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rock ...

. # Net touch
In this edition, players can not touch the whole net and antennas, not just the white band like in 2011 edition. # Roster
All 14 players (maximum 12 regular players and maximum 2 liberos) can play in every match and be named in score sheets. # Individual awards
Individual awards were given to players by positions, unlike previous editions when awards were given to players by volleyball skills. # Attribution of points
FIVB approved the proposal that in case the team hosting the Olympic Games participated in a previous World Cup then they would keep the World Ranking points gained at the previous World Cup. # Referee
It was the first time in the competition when there was a challenge referee. In each match, there was a referee who controlled the challenge system.

Qualification

12 teams participated in the World Cup. Only teams who had not yet qualified for the

2016 Olympic Games The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

could compete in the tournament.

Squads

Maximum of 12 regular players and maximum of 2 liberos can be selected to play in the tournament. The rosters of 14 players of each team can be seen in the article below.

Venues

Format

The competition system of the 2015 World Cup for women is the single Round-Robin system. Each team plays once against each of the 11 remaining teams.
The teams were divided into 2 groups of 6 teams each. In round 1, total 30 matches in 5 days, each team plays against the other teams from the same group. For rounds 2 and 3, total 36 matches in 6 days, each teams play against the teams from another group.
The pools composition followed the

Serpentine system The serpentine system, also known as snake seeding, is a method of organization used in competitions to define the seeded teams and arrange them into pools. The ''n'' ranked teams that will be involved in the tournament are distributed in ''m'' ...

based on the

World ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

where the host team was at the top position. Numbers in brackets denoted the

FIVB World Ranking The FIVB Senior World Rankings is a ranking system for men's and women's national teams in volleyball. The teams of the member nations of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), volleyball's world governing body, are ranked based on their ...

as of 13 October 2014 except the hosts who ranked 4th.

Pool standing procedure

# Number of matches won # Match points # Sets ratio # Points ratio # Result of the last match between the tied teams 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

Results

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

( UTC+09:00).

First round

Site A

Site B

Second round

Site A

Site B

Third round

Site A

Site B

Final standing

Awards

* Most valuable player *: Zhu Ting * Best Setter *:

Niverka Marte Niverka Dharlenis Marte Frica (born October 19, 1990 in Santo Domingo) is a volleyball player from the Dominican Republic who currently plays for Greek side AEK Athens. She played the 2012 Summer Olympics with the Dominican Republic national team ...

* Best Outside Hitters *:

Brankica Mihajlović Brankica Mihajlović ( sr-Cyrl, Бранкица Михајловић; born 13 April 1991) is a Serbian professional volleyball player. She plays for the Serbia women's national volleyball team where she won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Ol ...

Tatiana Kosheleva Tatiana Sergeyevna Kosheleva (, born 23 December 1988) is a Russian volleyball player. She was a member of the Russia women's national volleyball team that won the gold medal at the 2010 World Championship, the 2013 European Championship and t ...

* Best Middle Blockers *:

Daymara Lescay Daymara Lescay (born 5 September 1992) is a Cuban female volleyball player. She is a member of the Cuba women's national volleyball team and played for Guantanamo in 2014. She was part of the Cuban national team at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Wome ...

TeTori Dixon TeTori "Tori" Elsie Dixon (born August 4, 1992) is an American indoor volleyball player for the LOVB Salt Lake of the LOVB Pro. She is best known for being part of the United States national team that won the 2014 World Championship gold medal ...

* Best Opposite Hitter *:

Nataliya Obmochaeva Nataliya Olegovna Goncharova (, born 1 June 1989), from 2012 to 2016 Obmochaeva, is a Russian volleyball player. She played for the Ukraine women's national volleyball team until 2010 when she became part of the Russia women's national volleyba ...

* Best libero *:

Brenda Castillo Brenda Castillo (born June 5, 1992, in San Cristóbal) is a volleyball player from the Dominican Republic and plays as a libero. She was a member of the Dominican Republic national team that won fifth place in the 2012 Summer Olympics, while ...

Statistics leaders

References

External links

Player statistics
{{China squad 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup 2015 Women FIVB World Cup Women

FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. Initially the tournament was played in the year followi ...

International volleyball competitions hosted by Japan Volleyball qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics August 2015 sports events in Japan September 2015 sports events in Japan Women's volleyball in Japan Vol