COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 18, 2019) – The United States is the first country to earn a spot into the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Finals Round for both genders after the U.S. Women’s National Team secured its bid today with a win over Russia.
The U.S. Women, who captured the inaugural VNL title in 2018, are one of five teams atop the rankings with 10-3 records and two preliminary round matches remaining. The Americans have advanced to the Women’s VNL Finals set for July 3-7 in Nanjing, China. The Team USA will be joined by host China, Brazil, Italy and Turkey in the Finals with one spot up for grabs over the next two days.
The U.S. Men’s National Team will host the Men’s VNL Finals July 10-14 in Chicago at Credit Union 1 Arena on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus. To purchase tickets, visit go.volleyball.world/VNLFinals.
The VNL is the international federation’s top annual international volleyball competition featuring 16 national teams per gender. Each team plays 15 preliminary round robin matches over the course of five consecutive weeks. At the conclusion of the preliminary round, the top five teams plus the host country compete in their gender’s respective Final Six with the winner garnering the $1 million top prize.
Through the first three weeks of the Men’s VNL, Team USA is 5-4 overall having used various lineups with younger athletes gaining experience. Iran and Brazil lead the men’s standings with 8-1 records, while Italy and Russia follow closely with 7-2 marks.
The U.S. Men are in Chicago suburb Hoffman Estates, Illinois, this week for their home preliminary round matches against Japan (June 21), Canada (June 22) and China (June 23).