Türkiye and Poland: The 2026 VNL Crowns 🌍
Türkiye beat Brazil in Macao and Poland outlasted the USA in Ningbo. Melissa Vargas scored 33 in the women's final, which FIVB calls the most anyone has scored in a VNL final.
Turkiye beat Brazil 3-1 in Macao for a second women's VNL title, and Melissa Vargas scored 33 points in the final. The FIVB says nobody has ever scored more in one.
Vargas took the tournament's most valuable player award. Italy and China were the other two teams in the women's semifinals.
A week later in Ningbo, Poland beat the United States 3-2 and defended the men's title. It is Poland's third VNL crown in four years, and Tomasz Fornal was named most valuable player.
Slovenia won the first VNL medal in its history at that tournament, and Japan was the fourth men's semifinalist.
The line worth sitting with is the American one. The United States men have now reached four VNL finals and lost every one of them.
Four appearances in the final of a competition this hard is an achievement most federations would take. It is not the one an American squad flies to Ningbo for.