Brazil’s 2014 Volleyball Worlds: Silver, Bronze and the Set Scores
Brazil won men’s silver and women’s bronze at the 2014 volleyball World Championships. See the medal-match scores and how the women’s fifth set worked.
Brazil finished second in the men’s 2014 volleyball World Championship and third in the women’s tournament. The men lost the final to Poland, 3–1; the women beat Italy, 3–2, for bronze. (Men’s final report, women’s medal report)
These were World Championships, not World Cups. The FIVB’s archive lists the neighboring men’s and women’s World Cup editions as 2011 and 2015, with no edition in 2014. (FIVB competition archive)
Brazil’s women: bronze after Italy forced a fifth set
On 12 October 2014, Brazil beat host Italy for third place. Brazil had lost its semifinal to the United States in straight sets the previous day; the Americans went on to defeat China in the final. (VOA’s contemporary report)
The bronze-match scores below put Brazil first in every row. The last column counts sets won, not rally points.
| Set | Brazil | Italy | Match score after the set, Brazil–Italy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 15 | 1–0 |
| 2 | 25 | 13 | 2–0 |
| 3 | 22 | 25 | 2–1 |
| 4 | 22 | 25 | 2–2 |
| 5 | 15 | 7 | 3–2: Brazil won bronze |
Set scores: VOA’s medal report.
Brazil built a 2–0 lead, Italy recovered to 2–2, and Brazil won the deciding fifth set. Brazil’s large winning margins in the opening two sets did not give it a head start in the decider: each new set starts at 0–0.
The 15–7 finish was a complete fifth set, not an interrupted score. In standard FIVB indoor volleyball, a match is won by the first team to take three sets. Sets one through four have a 25-point target; the fifth has a 15-point target. Every set requires a two-point winning margin. (FIVB basic rules)
Brazil’s men: silver after winning the opener
On 21 September 2014 in Katowice, Poland, Brazil won the first set of the final, then lost three consecutive sets:
Brazil 1–3 Poland: 25–18, 22–25, 23–25, 22–25.
Poland’s victory ended Brazil’s run of world titles in 2002, 2006 and 2010. (Associated Press report)
Adding those set scores gives Brazil 92 points and Poland 93, not a points tie. For the comparison with the women’s gold-medal match and an explanation of why aggregate points do not decide the winner, see the 2014 World Championship final scores.