The 2026 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League was the eighth edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, an annual women's international volleyball tournament. It was held from 3 June to 26 July 2026, with the final round took place at the Macau East Asian Games Dome in Macau, China.
Following the results of the 2025 Nations League, South Korea were relegated and replaced by Ukraine as the highest-ranked non-VNL team in the FIVB World Rankings.
Turkey won their second VNL title by defeating Brazil 3–1 in the final, with Melissa Vargas earning MVP honors after scoring 33 points in the gold medal match. Brazil finished as the tournament runner-up for the fifth time, while Italy claimed the bronze medal with a 3–1 victory over hosts China in the third-place play-off.
Host selection In January 2026, the FIVB announced China as the host for the Women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Finals. Macau was selected to stage the event, marking the first time in 15 years—since the 2011 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix—that the city will host the women's finals.
Teams Qualification The tournament features 18 national teams. Following the 2025 season, South Korea were excluded after finishing last among the teams and replaced by Ukraine, who earned the right as the highest-ranked non-VNL team in the FIVB World Rankings.
+List of 2026 VNL participating teamsCountryConfederationPrevious appearancesBest performanceTotalFirstLastCEV5201820257th place (2019)CSV720182025Runners-up (2019, 2021, 2022, 2025)CEV52019202513th place (2023, 2025)NORCECA5202120256th place (2024)AVC720182025Runners-up (2023)CEV1202511th place (2025)NORCECA7201820256th place (2021)CEV2202420259th place (2025)CEV7201820257th place (2025)CEV720182025Champions (2022, 2024, 2025)AVC720182025Runners-up (2024)CEV7201820255th place (2018)CEV7201820253rd place (2023, 2024, 2025)CEV7201820253rd place (2022)AVC7201820258th place (2022, 2024)CEV720182025Champions (2023)CEV0DebutNORCECA720182025Champions (2018, 2019, 2021)
Squads
Each participating national team submitted a final 30-player roster published via the VNL competition website. For each competition week of the tournament, teams select a match-day lineup consisting of 12 to 14 players from their registered 30-player squad.
Format Preliminary round The format of play is generally the same as in the 2022 edition. Each week, six teams will compete during the pool phase. Each team plays 12 matches during the pool stage. During three weeks, each team plays four times in a table that is set up by an algorithm, with all teams playing 12 times in total at the end of the first phase. The eight best teams advance to the quarter-finals, while the last-placed team loses its place to the highest FIVB-ranked team that did not compete this year. The only country that has already qualified for this phase is China for hosting the finals and if it does not finish the first phase among the top eight, the top seven will qualify with the Chinese team being ranked 8th.
Final round The VNL Finals will see the top eight teams moving directly to the knockout phase, which will consist of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals, and the bronze and gold medal matches.
Final 8 direct elimination formula: The first ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the eighth ranked team, the second ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the seventh ranked team, the third ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the sixth ranked team, and the fourth ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the fifth ranked team. The national team of the hosting territory of the event will have a guaranteed berth for the Final round. If the host nation team do not finish in the top eight in the Preliminary round, they will replace the eighth place team and play as the eighth seed.
Pool composition The overview of pools was released on 28 January 2026.
Week 1Pool 1CanadaPool 2BrazilPool 3ChinaWeek 2Pool 4TurkeyPool 5PhilippinesPool 6ThailandWeek 3Pool 7SerbiaPool 8Hong Kong, ChinaPool 9Japan
Venues Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1Pool 2Pool 3Quebec City, CanadaBrasília, BrazilNanjing, ChinaCentre VidéotronNilson Nelson GymnasiumNanjing Olympic Youth Sports Park GymnasiumCapacity: 18,800Capacity: 11,105Capacity: 21,000Week 2Pool 4Pool 5Pool 6Ankara, TurkeyPasig, PhilippinesBangkok, Thailand Ankara Arena PhilSports Arena Indoor Stadium HuamarkCapacity: 10,400Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 8,000Week 3Pool 7Pool 8Pool 9Belgrade, SerbiaHong Kong, ChinaOsaka, JapanBelgrade ArenaKai Tak ArenaAsue Arena OsakaCapacity: 18,386Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 10,000
Final round All matchesMacau, ChinaMacau East Asian Games DomeCapacity: 9,000
Competition schedule ●Preliminary round●Final round
Week 13–7 JunWeek 217–21 JunWeek 38–12 JulWeek 422–26 Jul36 matches36 matches36 matches8 matches
Pool standing procedure Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply, with the teams ranked by the most points gained per match as follows: Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost. Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match between the tied teams during the Round Robin Phase. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams will be ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
Preliminary round Ranking
Week 1 Pool 1 All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).
Pool 2 All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).
Pool 3 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Week 2 Pool 4 All times are Turkish Time (UTC+03:00).
Pool 5 All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 6 All times are Thailand Standard Time (UTC+07:00).
Week 3 Pool 7 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 8 All times are Hong Kong Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 9 All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
Final round All times are Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam456789101112131415161718
14–woman rosterGizem Örge (c), Cansu Özbay, Melissa Vargas, Saliha Şahin, Hande Baladın, Sinead Jack, Eylül Akarçeşme, Elif Şahin, Deniz Uyanık, Berka Buse Özden, Zehra Güneş, Yaprak Erkek, İlkin Aydın, Defne BaşyolcuHead coach Daniele Santarelli
Awards According to the competition regulations, individual prize money totaling $100,000 would be awarded. A total of $70,000 was distributed among the statistical leaders of the preliminary phase ($10,000 per category), while a $30,000 prize was allocated for the MVP, selected from the gold medal match participants via a combined voting process between fans and designated volleyball experts.
Canada's Kiera Van Ryk was the only player selected in two statistical categories, leading both total points scored and total attack points. Ukraine and France each earned their first individual VNL preliminary awards through and , respectively.
Most valuable player Melissa Vargas Best scorer Kiera Van Ryk Best attacker Kiera Van Ryk Best blocker Júlia Kudiess Best server Ekaterina Antropova Best setter
Best digger
Best receiver
Statistics leaders Preliminary round Statistics leaders correct at the end of preliminary round.
Best ScorersPlayerAttacksBlocksServesTotal1 Kiera Van Ryk22621242712 Pauline Martin2141272333 188255218 Yukiko Wada205672185 Melissa Vargas 189714210
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Kiera Van Ryk2269319643.885152 Pauline Martin2147225239.785383 Yukiko Wada2054520345.254534 Melissa Vargas1893612753.693525 Zhuang Yushan1886824037.90496
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Júlia Kudiess4256731712 Emily Maglio4064931973 Magdaléna Jehlářová3955751694 Ela Koulisiani3762561555 Maja Koput355165151
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Ekaterina Antropova36271402032 Kiera Van Ryk24551061853 143368115 Melissa Vargas1432921385 Julia Szczurowska13153664 1313131157
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Daria Sharhorodska410477011842 Slađana Mirković407573111433 351671110684 Brie Fransen348769310485 Zhang Zixuan3303624957
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 20359693312 Eleonora Fersino18443612883 Aleksandra Szczygłowska17747512754 14833492305 1434646235
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 115121953222 105141913103 Sasipaporn Janthawisut855230320 Zhuang Yushan85151892895 Mayu Ishikawa8312215310
Final round Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.
Best ScorersPlayerAttacksBlocksServesTotal1 Melissa Vargas7148832 Ana Cristina de Souza6765783 Julia Bergmann4563544 Ekatarina Antropova3758505 Zhuang Yushan393446
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Melissa Vargas71135252.211362 Ana Cristina de Souza67246144.081523 Julia Bergmann45196435.161284 Rosamaria Montibeller41134441.84985 Zhuang Yushan39115935.78109 Hande Baladın39102453.4273
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 101122432 Wang Yuanyuan87924 Zehra Güneş8132344 Diana Duarte81817433 Elif Şahin641121 Ana Cristina de Souza612927 Julia Bergmann64616 Sarah Fahr6161638
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Melissa Vargas8103250 Ekatarina Antropova8937542 Ana Cristina de Souza5539493 Zhuang Yushan442432 Kiera Van Ryk46818 Luzia Nezzo442432
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Elif Şahin8812062952 Diao Linyu6901251943 Alessia Orro6512092754 Roberta Ratzke6302282935 Nanami Seki46068114
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Wang Mengjie42141672 421012642 Eleonora Fersino401020703 Melissa Vargas3565464 Gizem Örge3492063 Roberta Ratzke341313605 Ana Cristina de Souza3171260
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Julia Bergmann283781092 Hande Baladın20849773 İlkin Aydın19253744 Ana Cristina de Souza18970975 Zhuang Yushan1744970
See also 2026 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League 2026 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U17 World Championship
Notes
References
External links