# 2022 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup

The 2022 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup was the third edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup, an annual women's international volleyball tournament contested by eight national teams that acts as a qualifier for the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League. The tournament was held at Krešimir Ćosić Hall in Zadar, Croatia, between 28 and 31 July 2022.
Four teams made their first appearance in the women's Challenger Cup in this edition: Belgium, Cameroon, France and Kazakhstan.
Croatia won the title, defeating Belgium in the final, and earned the right to participate in the 2023 Nations League replacing Belgium, the last placed challenger team in the 2022 edition. Puerto Rico defeated Colombia in the 3rd place match.

## Qualification

A total of eight teams qualified for the tournament.
| Country | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances | Previous appearances | Previous appearances | Previous best performance |
| Country | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on | Total | First | Last | Previous best performance |
| Cameroon | CAVB | 1st World ranked team from CAVB | 31 March 2022 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Colombia | CSV | 1st World ranked team from CSV | 31 March 2022 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 | Runners-up (2018) |
| Kazakhstan | AVC | 1st World ranked team from AVC | 31 March 2022 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Puerto Rico | NORCECA | 1st World ranked team from NORCECA | 31 March 2022 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 | 3rd place (2018) |
| Croatia | CEV | Host country | 8 April 2022 | 1 | 2019 | 2019 | 4th place (2019) |
| Czech Republic | CEV | 1st World ranked team from CEV | 19 June 2022 | 1 | 2019 | 2019 | Runners-up (2019) |
| France | CEV | 2022 Golden League champions | 19 June 2022 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Belgium | CEV | 2022 Nations League last placed challenger team | 3 July 2022 | 0 | None | None | None |

## Format

The tournament will compete in a knock-out phase (quarterfinals, semifinals, and final), with the host country (Croatia) playing its quarterfinal match against the lowest ranked team among the participating teams. The remaining seven teams are placed from 2nd to 8th positions as per the FIVB World Ranking as of 3 July 2022. Rankings are shown in brackets except the hosts.
| Match | Top ranker | Bottom ranker |
| Quarterfinal 1 | Croatia (Hosts) | Kazakhstan (36) |
| Quarterfinal 2 | Belgium (12) | Czech Republic (23) |
| Quarterfinal 3 | Colombia (17) | France (22) |
| Quarterfinal 4 | Puerto Rico (18) | Cameroon (20) |

## Rule changes

* Court switch at the end of the sets to be eliminated due to COVID-19 safety guidelines and for a better television broadcasts.
* Each team is allowed to call only one time-out during each set in the preliminary. The time-out lasts 30 seconds long. During the finals, each team is granted one time-out before the technical and one time-out after the technical, except in a fifth set.
* Only one technical time-out is made when the leading team reaches 12 points, but no technical in a fifth set.

## Venue

* All matches
* Zadar, Croatia
* Krešimir Ćosić Hall
* Capacity: 8,500

## Knockout stage

* All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Final | Final |
| 28 July – Zadar | 28 July – Zadar | | | |
| Croatia | 3 | | | |
| Croatia | 3 | 30 July – Zadar | 30 July – Zadar | | |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 30 July – Zadar | 30 July – Zadar | |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | Croatia | 3 | |
| 29 July – Zadar | 29 July – Zadar | | Croatia | 3 | |
| 29 July – Zadar | 29 July – Zadar | Puerto Rico | 1 | |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | Puerto Rico | 1 | |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | | | | 31 July – Zadar | 31 July – Zadar |
| Cameroon | 0 | | | | 31 July – Zadar | 31 July – Zadar |
| Cameroon | 0 | | | | Croatia | 3 |
| 28 July – Zadar | 28 July – Zadar | | | | | Croatia | 3 |
| 28 July – Zadar | 28 July – Zadar | | | | Belgium | 1 |
| Belgium | 3 | | | | Belgium | 1 |
| Belgium | 3 | 30 July – Zadar | 30 July – Zadar | | | |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 30 July – Zadar | 30 July – Zadar | | | |
| Czech Republic | 0 | Belgium | 3 | | | |
| 29 July – Zadar | 29 July – Zadar | | Belgium | 3 | | | |
| 29 July – Zadar | 29 July – Zadar | Colombia | 1 | | 3rd place match | 3rd place match |
| Colombia | 3 | Colombia | 1 | | 3rd place match | 3rd place match |
| Colombia | 3 | | | | 31 July – Zadar | 31 July – Zadar |
| France | 2 | | | | 31 July – Zadar | 31 July – Zadar |
| France | 2 | | | | Puerto Rico | 3 |
| | | | | | Colombia | 1 |

### Quarterfinals

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 28 Jul | 17:00 | Belgium | 3–0 | Czech Republic | 25–18 | 25–23 | 25–15 | | | 75–56 | P2 Report |
| 28 Jul | 20:00 | Croatia | 3–0 | Kazakhstan | 25–20 | 25–15 | 25–20 | | | 75–55 | P2 Report |
| 29 Jul | 17:00 | Colombia | 3–2 | France | 25–17 | 25–16 | 22–25 | 11–25 | 16–14 | 99–97 | P2 Report |
| 29 Jul | 20:00 | Puerto Rico | 3–0 | Cameroon | 25–0 | 25–0 | 25–0 | | | 75–0 | Report |

### Semifinals

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 30 Jul | 17:00 | Belgium | 3–1 | Colombia | 21–25 | 25–20 | 25–21 | 25–16 | | 96–82 | P2 Report |
| 30 Jul | 20:00 | Croatia | 3–1 | Puerto Rico | 26–24 | 25–17 | 23–25 | 25–17 | | 99–83 | P2 Report |

### 3rd place match

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 31 Jul | 17:00 | Puerto Rico | 3–1 | Colombia | 27–25 | 23–25 | 25–23 | 25–18 | | 100–91 | P2 Report |

### Final

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 31 Jul | 20:00 | Croatia | 3–1 | Belgium | 25–20 | 21–25 | 25–22 | 25–21 | | 96–88 | P2 Report |

## Final standing

| Rank | Team |
| | Croatia |
| | Belgium |
| | Puerto Rico |
| 4 | Colombia |
| 5 | France |
| 6 | Czech Republic |
| 7 | Kazakhstan |
| 8 | Cameroon |
* Qualified for the 2023 Nations League
* 2022 Women's Challenger Cup champions
* Croatia First title
* 14–woman Roster
* Mika Grbavica, Ema Strunjak, Božana Butigan, Klara Perić, Laura Miloš, Lucija Mlinar, Dijana Karatović, Beta Dumančić, Josipa Marković, Samanta Fabris (c), Martina Šamadan, Lea Deak, Izabela Štimac, Natalia Tomić
* Head coach
* Ferhat Akbaş