Competitors 144 from 12 nations | Dates 9 Aug 2008 – 23 Aug 2008 | |
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Venue Capital Indoor Stadium and
Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium | ||
The women's tournament in volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held at Capital Indoor Stadium and Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium from 9 to 23 August 2008.
Contents
The twelve competing teams were split equally into two pools of six teams. Each team played all other teams in their pool with the winning team gaining 2 points and the losing side 1 point. The top four teams from each pool progressed through to the quarterfinals. The rest of the tournament was a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match held between the two semifinal losers.
A total of 38 matches were played: 15 in each group, 4 quarterfinals, 2 semifinals, 1 bronze medal match, and 1 gold medal match.
Qualification
* The Asian Olympic qualification tournament and the World Olympic Qualification Tournament are combined into one event. The top 3 teams at the tournament will qualify as the medallists of the World Olympic Qualification Tournament while the best Asian team outside the top 3 will qualify as the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament champion.
Preliminary round
All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).
Knockout stage
The first four teams in each Preliminary Round pool advanced to the quarterfinals, eight teams in total. The format was as follows:
A1 vs. B4 (first place in pool A vs. fourth place in pool B)
B1 vs. A4
A drawing of lots determined the pairings among A2/A3 and B2/B3. The purpose of this drawing was to prevent a second-place team in a pool from deliberately losing the last game in pool play in order to select an "easier" opponent (in the sense of matchups) in the quarterfinals.
Based on a drawing of lots after the group stage, the United States faced and defeated Italy, while China drew and won against Russia in their quarterfinal matches. The other quarterfinal match-ups were determined by the pool standings. Brazil (pool B winner) played Japan (pool A 4th place). Cuba (pool A winner) played play Serbia (pool B 4th place). Both top seeds went on to defeat their opponents 3–0, thus reaching the semifinals.
In the semifinals, Brazil defeated the host nation and defending champion China, while the United States defeated Cuba. Both semifinal matches were won 3–0.
In the final, Brazil, for the first time in the tournament, lost a set but was able to win the next two sets from the United States to claim the match and the gold medal. In the third-place match, China defeated Cuba for the bronze medal.
All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).