There may be all the time one thing occurring on the planet of volleyball. With a minimum of two world championship tournaments and a restructured ladies’s professional league in America underway, let’s check out a few of the newest information from the game.
With the Girls’s Volleyball World Championships underway, the eyes of the sport are on Thailand.
The occasion, which represents the nation’s first-ever internet hosting of a world championship of an Olympic sport, kicked off on Friday, August 22.
Led by veteran captain Miriam Sylla, Italy are the favorites on each onshore and offshore betting web sites, the place individuals can gamble with out having to undergo know-your-customer (KYC) checks.
Brazil, that includes middle-blocker Adenízia Silva and the USA, whose reverse Jordan Thompson stays one to observe in Thailand this 12 months, are additionally hotly-tipped, however reigning world champions Serbia, who’ve been world champions since 2018 however have been on a poor run of type since profitable the 2022 event, are relative outsiders to attain a threepeat.
The event began with a match between Argentina and Czechia, which noticed the South People win 3-1, with their high scorer being Bianca Cugno.
This match was adopted by a 3-1 win for France over Puerto Rico, whereas Belgium shut out Cuba to win 3-0.
Each Brazil and the USA had been set to start out their tournaments later that day, with Brazil resulting from face Slovenia and the American facet up towards darkish horses Greece.
The hosts will compete towards Egypt of their first match.
The ladies’s championship shouldn’t be the one main competitors happening in an Asian nation proper now, nonetheless.
In China, the Males’s under-21 World Championships began on Thursday, August 21.
The primary collection of matches noticed defending champions Iran beat Kazakhstan 3-1, whereas the identical rating noticed lowly Cuba rating a shock win over group seeds Bulgaria.
The competitors, happening within the metropolis of Jiangmen within the south of the nation, appears to be like set to be one of the crucial hotly contested occasions of its sort for fairly a while.
In addition to Iran and the hosts, the USA, Italy, and Canada all carry groups that would declare the highest spot.
The People grabbed a win within the first match, towards Thailand, because of a man-of-the-match efficiency by setter Tread Rosenthal.
The College of Hawaii star contributed three blocks, two aces, and a kill to his facet’s 3-0 win, as the USA registered a fairly spectacular .537 hitting fee and solely made six errors in 67 separate assaults.
Reverse Cole Hartke, outdoors hitter Sean Kelly, center blocker Jackson Cryst, and out of doors hitter Sterling Foley all joined Rosenthal within the double-digit scoring record.
Head coach John Hawks, who additionally serves as Head Coach of the UCLA volleyball workforce, mentioned he was “excited” that his workforce was capable of win its first match, however acknowledged that there have been some points that wanted to be sorted out.
Away from the worldwide enviornment, ladies’s volleyball in the USA is on the point of endure a restructuring.
The Professional Volleyball Federation and Main League Volleyball introduced earlier this month that the 2 organisations would work collectively to type a unified competitors referred to as MLV.
Groups from Columbus, Dallas, Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids,San Francisco and Orlando will probably be joined by present champions Omaha, with groups from Northern California and Washington D.C. set to hitch subsequent 12 months.
With issues set to essentially warmth up subsequent 12 months, groups have already been taking a look at increasing and enhancing their present rosters.
For instance, present champions, the Omaha Supernovas, have introduced a deal to carry former College of Nebraska middle-blocker Leyla Blackwell, a three-time All-WCC first-teamer, on board for subsequent season, whereas outdoors hitter Allison Mayfield will transfer from Omaha to the Grand Rapids Rise.
So there you’ve gotten it. There are two main worldwide tournaments occurring proper now which each have wide-open fields, whereas the American ladies’s home recreation appears to be like prefer it may effectively proceed its spectacular development. What occurs subsequent is, fittingly, up within the air proper now, however that’s why we maintain watching and loving volleyball.