Turkey’s Vakıfbank Istanbul win 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship

The reigning world champions beat Brazil’s Minas Tenis Clube in the Final to retain the championship title they won last year and also in 2013.

Another Turkish club, Eczacıbaşı VitrA Istanbul, winners in 2015 and 2016 were also amongst the medals as they took home a bronze medal after beating another Brazilian club Praia Clube in the third and fourth place play-off.

The Olympic Sports Center in Shaoxing was the venue for 12th FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship tournament which ran from 4 to 9 December.

Eight teams, four of which were wild cards, competed and were initially split into two pools of four. In Pool A, Vakıfbank Istanbul were joined by Minas Tenis Clube, Zhejiang WVC of China and Volero Le Cannet of France. Pool B was made of Eczacıbaşı VitrA Istanbul, Praia Clube, Supreme Chonburi from Thailand, and Altay VC of Kazakhstan.

Both Turkish teams dominated the Pool group stages winning all three of their round-robin games to top the groups and progress to the semi-finals. They were joined by both the Brazilian teams who finished second in their respective Pools losing only one game.

The semi-finals first saw Pool A runners-up, Minas Tenis Clube of Brazil come from a set down to beat Eczacıbaşı VitrA by three set to two (22-25, 26-24, 25-13, 23-25, 15-12). The other semi-final went the way of Vakıfbank by three sets to one over Praia Clube (25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 25-18).

The Final was to prove more of a one-sided encounter as Vakıfbank won in comprehensive fashion by three sets to nil.
Having given a good account of themselves in the opening set, their Brazilian opponents Minas Tenis Clube had no answer to the power of the Turkish side who won 25-23, 25-21, 25-19.

Eczacıbaşı VitrA claimed the third place spot and bronze medal with an identical three sets to nil success over Praia Clube (25-16, 25-18, 25-19).