▲ The women's national volleyball team in action
The women's national volleyball team (ranked 28th globally) stumbled against Thailand (ranked 17th), failing to advance to the semifinals of the 2026 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, which offers a berth for the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics.
Coached by Cha Sang-hyun, South Korea suffered a 0-3 (20-25 18-25 21-25) defeat to Thailand in the tournament's quarterfinals held today (August 27) at the Tianjin Olympic Center Gymnasium in China.
This marks the second time South Korea has failed to reach the tournament semifinals, following the previous edition in 2023 (where they finished sixth).
Since first participating in the tournament in 1975, South Korea had finished in the top four in every single edition—excluding the 2021 tournament, which they did not attend—before missing out on the semifinals for the first time in 2023.
And they suffered another setback in this tournament, returning to the competition after three years.
South Korea also missed out on both the LA Olympics ticket awarded to the champions of this tournament and the qualification for next year's International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Women's World Cup (formerly the World Championships) given to the top three teams.
The national team engaged in a tight battle early in the first set, but gave up five consecutive points from a 14-12 lead, allowing a turnaround.
Main spiker Kang So-hwi (Korea Expressway Corporation) had her attacks repeatedly blocked, and the gap widened as they conceded four straight attacking points to opposing ace Sasipaporn Janthawisut.
South Korea subsequently pulled within a point with an open attack by Kang So-hwi, but failed to regain momentum.
The second set was surrendered easily.
South Korea conceded four consecutive points from a 6-8 score.
Kang So-hwi's soft shot was blocked by the opponent's defense, and their receiving faltered afterward, preventing effective attacks.
Trailing 15-18, they missed the chance to mount a comeback by conceding consecutive points through a series of unforced-error-like plays.
The match concluded in the third set.
South Korea failed to stop the opponent's attack at 18-18, and their flow was broken when Na Hyun-su's (Hyundai Engineering & Construction) open attack went out of bounds.
At 19-21, they successfully narrowed the deficit to one point with a quick attack by Lee Da-hyeon (NEC Red Rockets), but collapsed completely after conceding a central quick attack and a service ace to Thailand at 20-21, followed by consecutive attacking errors from Na Hyun-su.
Na Hyun-su fought hard with 12 points and Kang So-hwi with 10 points, but they could not smile.
(Photo: Capture from FIVB website, Yonhap News)
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