These girls rule the world: Serbia's volleyball team defend the title, thus battering Brazil in the final

Serbia will continue as the reigning world champions for another four years after the Europeans successfully defended the title they first won in 2018 on Saturday, triumphing at the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

The Serbians ended their undefeated 12-match campaign at the 19th edition of the tournament in an emphatic manner, sweeping (26-24, 25-22, 25-17) former FIVB Volleyball Women's World Ranking leaders Brazil to claim gold and take their place on the podium again.

The fourth victory for Serbia over Brazil in 22 international encounters made of them just the sixth nation to win back-to-back editions of the World Championship, joining the former USSR (1952, 1956, 1960), Japan (1982, 1967), China (1982, 1986), Cuba (1994, 1998) and Russia (2006, 2010).

Nine players who were part of the roster that won the title in 2018 returned to triumph again in 2022 - setter Bojana Drca, opposites Tijana Boskovic and Ana Bjelica, outside hitters Bianka Busa, Brankica Mihajlovic and Bojana Milenkovic, middle blockers Maja Aleksic and Jovana Stevanovic and libero Teodora Pusic - now under the leadership of head coach Daniele Santarelli.

"I'm speechless," team captain Boskovic commented. "These girls, this team, this energy…We did it without losing a single match. I'm so happy and so proud to be part of this team. I want to thank everyone that supported us these past three weeks, especially my family."

The victory also crowns an excellent phase for Serbian women's volleyball as the country's national team has had tremendous success over the last six years, winning two world titles, two Olympic medals (silver in Rio 2016 and bronze in Tokyo 2020), two European titles (2017, 2019) and a bronze medal at the VNL (2022).

Serbia had the top two scorers of the gold medal match in Apeldoorn, with Boskovic leading the way with 24 points (all in kills) and Stevanovic coming next with 11 (five kills, four blocks, two aces). Setter Drca also had an excellent performance, with six points (three kills, two blocks, one ace).

The Europeans dominated the gold medal match, outscoring Brazil in kills (50 to 33), blocks (nine to five) and aces (four to three). The Serbian performance in the final was so strong that not even their 22 errors (to Brazil's 13) put things in jeopardy.

©Volleyball World