Okay, so, I gotta tell you about this little project I did a while back. I was really into volleyball, right? And the 2018 VNL, the Volleyball Nations League for women, was a big deal. I wanted to know how all the teams stacked up, so I decided to dive in and figure out the standings.
First, I hit up the internet. I mean, where else do you go for this kind of info? I started with the official VNL website. It was a bit tricky to find the 2018 stuff since it wasn’t the current year anymore. But I’m nothing if not persistent, so I kept digging. I looked for articles and posts that were about that season. It took some time, but I found a few useful pieces, like something from the Lincoln Journal Star, believe it or not. They had a little blurb about it from May 5th that year.
I gathered all the scores and match results I could find. I remember watching some of the games, too. That final round was awesome! I’m pretty sure I watched every single match, so it’s all vivid in my mind.
- I started putting all the data into a spreadsheet.
- Then, I wrote down each team’s wins and losses.
- After that, I calculated points based on the match outcomes, just like they do in the official rules.
- Finally, I ranked the teams from first to last.
It was a lot of work, going through each match, making sure I got the scores right, and figuring out the points. But, man, it was satisfying to see it all come together. I even remember that Italy beat Japan in the finals. The scores were like 25-17, 25-17, and then 21-25. It was a great match!
The Final Results
After all that work, I had my own version of the 2018 VNL standings. It felt great to have done it all myself, kind of like being a sports statistician or something. And I got really good at using spreadsheets, I gotta say.
This whole thing, it was a fun little project. It helped me get even more into volleyball, and I learned a lot about how these tournaments work. Plus, it was cool to see how my results matched up with the official ones. I think the thing I remember the most was how much work goes into these things. It’s not just playing the games, it’s also keeping track of all the details. That’s what I love about sports!
