The South Korean women's national volleyball team (ranked 28th globally) has failed to win a medal at the Asian Games for the second consecutive time.

Led by head coach Cha Sang-hyun, the national team lost 0-3 (20-25, 19-25, 23-25) to Thailand (ranked 13th) in the bronze medal match of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held today at the Park Arena Komaki in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Having fallen to the bronze medal match following a 0-3 defeat against Japan (ranked 6th) yesterday, South Korea suffered a sweeping loss to Thailand, the champions of the 2026 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, and will return home empty-handed.

This marks only the third time that the South Korean women's volleyball team has failed to win a medal at the Asian Games since women's volleyball was adopted as an official sport at the 1962 Jakarta Games.

The team finished 5th at both the 2006 Doha Games and the 2022 Hangzhou Games, and settled for 4th this time.

South Korea took an 8-5 lead early in the first set, but the momentum was broken by a series of dubious calls from first referee Yuliya Akulova (Kazakhstan).

While Kim Da-in (Hyundai Engineering & Construction) was blocking an opponent's push attack, the referee whistled an over-net fault.

Head coach Cha Sang-hyun stepped up to protest, but it was not accepted.

Referee Akulova then ruled a catch ball foul against Kim Da-in's play when the score was 8-7.

Coach Cha protested strongly once again, but again to no avail.

The momentum subsequently shifted to Thailand.

The national team struggled as they failed to properly stop Thailand's fierce offensive wave.

In particular, they failed to effectively cope with the versatile tactical orchestration of Pornpun Guedpard (known as Pornpun during her V-League career), the star Thai setter who previously played for the V-League club IBK Altos.

In the second set, the team collapsed due to reception issues.

Leading 11-9, South Korea allowed five consecutive points after Yuk Seo-young (IBK Altos) repeatedly failed to cleanly handle targeted serves, giving up the lead.

Down 14-17, the gap widened as they failed to block Thailand's sharp middle quick attacks and mobile plays, conceding three straight points.

South Korea surrendered the third set as well, wrapping up the tournament as it was.

Locked in a tight battle, the national team struggled against Thailand's strong serves at 17-16 and conceded three consecutive points, losing the lead.

South Korea successfully mounted a chase to tie the game at 22-22, but lost steam as Yuk Seo-young's attacks consecutively went out of bounds.

Captain Kang So-hwi (Korea Expressway Corporation) scored a team-high 10 points, while Lee Da-hyun (NEC Red Rockets) added 9 points.

Meanwhile, in the final held today, China (ranked 7th) thoroughly defeated Japan (ranked 6th) with a set score of 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-23) to claim the gold medal for the third consecutive time.

(Photo: Yonhap News)