Serbia, Russia to represent Europe at FIVB World Cup

BELGRADE - Serbian women's volleyball team will play at the FIVB World Cup for the third time in its history, the national volleyball federation released on Thursday.

Serbia currently shares second place with Italy in the European (CEV) ranking with 324 points, but it will represent Europe together with the first-ranked Russia (334 points) at next year's FIVB World Cup in Japan, owing to its better performance at the 2013 European Championship.

Serbia took the fourth place in the last-year's European Championship while Italy finished as sixth. The two teams faced off in the quarterfinals, and the Serbian team coached by Zoran Terzic won 3-0 (25-14, 28-26, 25-18).

The FIVB World Cup in Japan, to be held from August 22 to September 6 next year, will be the first qualifying event for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

A total of 12 teams will compete at the World Cup: host country Japan, two teams from each of the five FIVB confederations, and the current world champion United States.