The 2018 Women’s volleyball world championship took place recently in Japan and provided some stunning entertainment for fans. This was the 18thchampionship to date with Russian standing clear with seven titles. The other winners include Japan, Cuba, China, Italy and United States. Serbia added their name to this exclusive list with a breakthrough victory as they dominated from the start.

Expectations were high prior to the tournament and this was shown with punters supporting them using the latest Sugarhouse promo code, and this was justified with their performances.

So how was it won? Serbia were led by their opposite, Tijana Boskovic who was named the MVP of the championships due to being the most efficient scorer of the event. At just 21 years of age, she put in a starring role to register 176 kills from 328 swings for a 53.66% return. An incredible return, which still put her a little short of Russia’s Elizaveta Tishchenko from back in 2002, who holds the record with a 65.03% return.

It was however Italy’s opposite Paolo Egonu who stamped herself as the rising force of women’s volleyball. She continued to break records that included smashing the scoring record with a 45 points return against the Rio 2016 Olympic champions, China. The previous record set was 251 points back in 2010 by Turkey’s Demir, which has now been overtaken by Egonu who posted a jaw-dropping total of 324 points. This meant from her 13 appearances she averaged around 25 points a game, a record that is likely to now stand for sometime.

Serbia kicked off in Pool D and put in a faultless run of performances, in winning all five games without dropping a set. This put them as the only side in the tournament to do so, as they quickly stamped themselves as the team to beat in Japan. The second round was a different story as they were defeated twice but progressed through with Netherlands topping Pool E.

In the third round, Serbia were placed in Pool G against Italy and Japan, and put in two starring performances to top the group. In the process they dropped just one set to progress through to face the Netherlands in the semi finals. This was the most anticipated game of the tournament thus far. It was a very tight encounter with each set going the distance as Serbia were victorious 3-1 following a fourth set victory by 25-23.

The final against Italy took place in front of an audience of 11,500, in what was an incredible game of volleyball. Both sides brought their A games, but it was Serbia who won 3-2, and in the process winning their first world championship in their history. A fantastic and deserved achievement from the Serbian side.

image: FIVB