The world of women’s volleyball has a new champion. In an epic, five-set gold-medal match to conclude the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Championship, Serbia topped Italy 21-25, 25-14, 23-25, 25-19, 15-12, finishing the 2018 season on top of the world. 

Just two years ago, Serbia elevated its reputation and world ranking by winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics. Earlier this summer, the Serbs finished second behind the USA in the round-robin portion of the Volleyball Nations League, but finished tied for fifth overall after losing both of their Final Six pool-play matches.

At Worlds, Serbia jumped out to a hot start, sweeping its first seven opponents and ultimately entering the gold-medal match with a 10-2 record. Its two losses came at the end of the second round when the team had already secured a spot in the Final Six and chose to sit some of its star players.

Was there a better way to bring #FIVBWomensWCH to an end? Probably not! A magnificent five-setter between Serbia ?? @ossrb and Italy ?? @Federvolley ?

Serbia won the gold medal and here are the highlights ?

Match Centre: https://t.co/1MhBofqFO9#volleyball #volleyballWCHs pic.twitter.com/G5T0n6viVL

— Volleyball World (@FIVBVolleyball) October 20, 2018

Serbian opposite Tijana Boskovic led her team with 26 points in the gold-medal match and was named Dream Team MVP, finishing the tournament with 193 total points, good for fourth overall. 

The tournament’s overall top scorer Paola Egonu (324 points) had 33 points in the final and was named Best Opposite. Outsides Miryam Sylla (Italy) and Zhu Ting (China), middles Yan Ni (China) and Milena Rasic (Serbia), setter Ofelia Malinov (Italy), and libero Monica De Gennaro (Italy) joined Boskovic and Egonu on the Dream Team.

The victory over Italy marked the first World Championship title for Serbia.

“It's hard to find words. We are happy and proud. It was our dream,” Serbia head coach Zoran Terzic said. “I have been the coach since 2002. We saw Russia and the U.S. win golds at previous World Championships and thought it would be great if we could do it. This is the biggest success in the history of Serbia women's volleyball. When I took over we were ranked something like 100th in the world.”

In the bronze-medal match, China defeated the Netherlands 25-22, 25-19, 25-14. On the way to winning their first Worlds bronze, China out-served (6 to 2), out-blocked (8 to 1), out-dug (32-30), and out-hit (48 to 43) the Netherlands, while the Dutch team committed 13 errors to China’s nine.

It's their moment atop of the world for the first time! Serbia ?? @ossrb collects their first ever #FIVBWomensWCH gold medal ?! They can keep celebrating like this ?

Match Centre of the final vs Italy ?? @Federvolley: https://t.co/mDMBu9aNW9#volleyball #volleyballWCHs pic.twitter.com/pQ2BQDRlXh

— Volleyball World (@FIVBVolleyball) October 20, 2018

Captain Zhu Ting had led China throughout the entire tournament, but in the team’s final match, it was 18-year-old Li YingYing who put away a match-high 20 points with 16 kills and four aces.

From the first game to the last, my players were aggressive and worked hard,” China head coach Lang Ping said. “There were many China supporters here. We played strong teams that gave us experience. I could feel the development of the volleyball world.”

Despite losing in the third-place match, the Netherlands celebrated its best-ever Worlds finish and got excellent performances out of opposite Lonneke Slöetjes, who finished the tournament second in overall points with 276.

Nevertheless, Netherlands head coach Jamie Morrison couldn’t help but express his frustration after the match.

“We are disappointed. I didn't think we played good volleyball tonight,” he said. “This is not a proper ending to the tournament for the way we played. I will feel differently after a while, but I am disappointed now.”