Women's Volleyball Team Reaches Semifinals for First Time in 8 Years with 3-0 Sweep Over Kazakhstan [AG Video]

The women's national volleyball team, led by head coach Cha Sang-hyun, defeated Kazakhstan today (September 20) to advance to the semifinals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The national team secured a 3-0 set victory against Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals held today at Park Arena Komaki in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

The national team will play its semifinal match tomorrow at 7:20 PM against the winner of the match between Japan and Taiwan, which takes place this afternoon.

This marks the first time in eight years that the South Korean women's volleyball team has reached the semifinals of the Asian Games, following the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

South Korea finished as the runner-up at the 2010 Guangzhou Games, won the championship at the 2014 Incheon Games, and claimed the bronze medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. However, the team failed to reach the semifinals at the 2022 Hangzhou Games held in 2023, finishing in fifth place.

Although the national team won without dropping a set today, they faced a fierce battle, engaging in deuce games in both the first and second sets.

In the first set, trailing 22-23, South Korea allowed consecutive points and a turnaround, but reclaimed the lead at 25-24 thanks to back-to-back blocks by Kim Da-in.

Afterward, the team secured possession through Kim Da-in's effective block and Yook Seo-young's dig, and Kang So-hwi scored a precious point to win the first set 26-24.

The second set was equally intense.

Leading 24-23, South Korea gave up consecutive points to fall behind 24-25.

However, Yook Seo-young calmly succeeded in an attack and followed up with a service ace to turn the score around to 26-25.

The national team did not let the opportunity slip away.

They added another point following an opponent's attacking error to make the set score 2-0.

Having narrowly claimed the first and second sets through hard-fought battles, South Korea wrapped up the match in the third set.

Leading 21-20, consecutive points from Kang So-hwi and Yook Seo-young cemented their momentum, and Park Eun-seo finished the match with a block at 24-21.

Yook Seo-young put on a stellar performance, scoring a match-high 20 points, while middle blocker Jung Ho-young contributed 10 points and Lee Da-hyeon added 9 points.

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