# 2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup

The 2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup, a new annual women's international volleyball tournament contested by six national teams that acts as a qualifier for the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League. The tournament was held in Lima, Peru between 20 and 24 June.
Bulgaria won the title, defeating Colombia in the final, and earned the right to participate in the 2019 Nations League replacing Argentina, the last placed challenger team after the 2018 edition. Puerto Rico defeated Peru in the third place match.

## Qualification

Six teams will compete in 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 |
| Australia | AVC | Asian qualifier 3rd place | 20 May 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Puerto Rico | NORCECA | North American qualifier champions | 20 May 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Colombia | CSV | South American qualifier runner-up | 27 May 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Peru | CSV | Host country | 15 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Bulgaria | CEV | 2018 Golden League champions | 17 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Hungary | CEV | 2018 Golden League runner-up | 17 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |

### Note

    ^a Australia replaced Kazakhstan, the Asian qualifier winners, who withdrew from the tournament.
    ^b Originally, a CSV representative was to face a team from Africa in a playoff for a spot in the Challenger Cup. According to the Chilean Volleyball Federation (FEVOCHI), however, FIVB fined the African Volleyball Confederation for not hosting any kind of qualifier event.

## Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of August 2017. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of Pool A regardless of the World Ranking. Rankings are shown in brackets except hosts who ranked 26th.
| Pool A | Pool B |
| Peru (Host) | Puerto Rico (13) |
| Colombia (28) | Bulgaria (17) |
| Hungary (30) | Australia (42) |

## Venue

* All matches
* Lima, Peru
* Coliseo Eduardo Dibos
* Capacity: 4,600

## Preliminary round

* Venue: Coliseo Eduardo Dibos, Lima, Peru
* All times are Peru Time (UTC-05:00).

### Pool A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Colombia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | MAX | 151 | 87 | 1.736 | Final round |
| 2 | Peru | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 126 | 127 | 0.992 | Final round |
| 3 | Hungary | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.000 | 90 | 153 | 0.588 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Total | Report |
| 20 Jun | 19:00 | Peru | 0–3 | Colombia | 24–26 | 12–25 | 12–25 | 48–76 | Report |
| 21 Jun | 19:00 | Colombia | 3–0 | Hungary | 25–13 | 25–19 | 25–7 | 75–39 | Report |
| 22 Jun | 19:00 | Hungary | 0–3 | Peru | 14–25 | 11–25 | 26–28 | 51–78 | Report |

### Pool B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Bulgaria | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | MAX | 150 | 92 | 1.630 | Final round |
| 2 | Puerto Rico | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 125 | 119 | 1.050 | Final round |
| 3 | Australia | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.000 | 86 | 150 | 0.573 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Total | Report |
| 20 Jun | 17:00 | Bulgaria | 3–0 | Australia | 25–11 | 25–16 | 25–15 | 75–42 | P2 Report |
| 21 Jun | 17:00 | Puerto Rico | 3–0 | Australia | 25–10 | 25–19 | 25–15 | 75–44 | Report |
| 22 Jun | 17:00 | Bulgaria | 3–0 | Puerto Rico | 25–18 | 25–18 | 25–14 | 75–50 | Report |

## Final round

| Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| 23 June – Lima | 23 June – Lima |
| Colombia | 3 |
| Colombia | 3 | 24 June – Lima | 24 June – Lima |
| Puerto Rico | 1 | 24 June – Lima | 24 June – Lima |
| Puerto Rico | 1 | Colombia | 1 |
| 23 June – Lima | 23 June – Lima | | Colombia | 1 |
| 23 June – Lima | 23 June – Lima | Bulgaria | 3 |
| Bulgaria | 3 | Bulgaria | 3 |
| Peru | 0 | | |
| Peru | 0 | 3rd place match | 3rd place match |
| | | 24 June – Lima | 24 June – Lima |
| | | Puerto Rico | 3 |
| | | Peru | 2 |

### Semifinals

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 23 June | 16:00 | Colombia | 3–1 | Puerto Rico | 23–25 | 27–25 | 25–10 | 25–18 | | 100–78 | Report |
| 23 June | 18:00 | Bulgaria | 3–0 | Peru | 25–21 | 25–22 | 25–18 | | | 75–61 | Report |

### 3rd place match

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 24 June | 17:00 | Puerto Rico | 3–2 | Peru | 22–25 | 25–15 | 21–25 | 25–17 | 16–14 | 109–96 | Report |

### Final

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 24 June | 19:00 | Colombia | 1–3 | Bulgaria | 25–22 | 19–25 | 20–25 | 23–25 | | 87–97 | Report |

## Final standing

| Rank | Team |
| | Bulgaria |
| | Colombia |
| | Puerto Rico |
| 4 | Peru |
| 5 | Australia |
| 5 | Hungary |
* Qualified for the 2019 Nations League
* 2018 Women's Challenger Cup champions
* Bulgaria First title
* 14–woman Roster
* Gergana Dimitrova, Nasya Dimitrova, Kristiana Petrova, Veselina Grigorova, Lora Kitipova, Petya Barakova, Monika Krasteva, Mira Todorova, Hristina Ruseva (c), Mariya Karakasheva, Zhana Todorova, Borislava Saykova, Silvana Chausheva, Aleksandra Milanova
* Head coach
* Ivan Petkov