2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship

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 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The final tournament was held from 23 September to 12 October 2014 in Italy.

The United States won their first world title, defeating China in four sets at the final. Reigning Olympic champions Brazil won the 3rd place match, defeating Italy 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 Italy were granted automatic qualification. Regional governing bodies were allocated the remaining 23 spots. Africa was granted two, Asia and Oceania four, North, Central America and Caribbean six, South America two, and Europe ten places (including hosts).

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, Italy 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 (UTC+02:00).

Pool A
Venue: PalaLottomatica, Rome

Pool B
Venue: PalaTrieste, Trieste

Pool C
Venue: PalaOlimpia, Verona

Pool D
Venue: PalaFlorio, Bari

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, Bari and PalaTrieste, Trieste

Pool F
Venues: PalaOlimpia, Verona and PalaPanini, Modena

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, Milan

Final round
Venue: Mediolanum Forum, Milan

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
 * 🇨🇳 Yang Junjing
 * Best opposite spiker
 * 🇧🇷 Sheilla Castro
 * Best libero
 * 🇮🇹 Monica De Gennaro