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.

The rest of the tournament was a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match held between the two semifinal losers.

After a robin-round, the four highest-placed teams in each group advanced to a knock-out round to decide the medals.

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.