Korean women's volleyball team seeks breakthrough in VNL starting with Germany

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Korean women's volleyball team seeks breakthrough in VNL starting with Germany

Published: 04 Jun. 2025, 15:07 Updated: 04 Jun. 2025, 19:44

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

The Korean women's volleyball team poses after a win over France on June 13, 2024 at the Volleyball Nations League in Fukuoka, Japan. [FIVB]

The Korean women’s volleyball team will start their 2025 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) journey with a match against world No. 12 Germany on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The squad led by head coach Fernando Morales will play 12 matches in the preliminary stage through mid-July, with top eight teams joining the knockout stage later that month.

Korea, which had struggled at the VNL in recent years, needs to bounce back in order to avoid relegation — adopted in this year’s VNL.

The last-place team out of 18 countries will face relegation and lose their eligibility to play in the VNL next year.

Morales’s squad still demonstrated some improvements last year by securing two wins out of 12 matches, compared to the country’s performance in the 2022 and 2023 editions, during which the team lost every single match.

The national team includes captain Kang So-hwi of Gimcheon Korea Expressway Hi-Pass, who ended the 2024-25 V League regular season with 548 points across 36 matches, alongside V League picks such as Jeong Ji-yun of Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate and Lee Da-hyun of the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders and Lee Ju-ah of the Hwaseong IBK Altos.

“It has been less than a month [of preparation], but I am looking forward to it as we trained hard and built cohesion,” Kang was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. “The VNL is a precious opportunity for Korea. We will fight to never face relegation. I am nervous and excited about every single match. I think all participating teams are rivals.”

Korean women's volleyball team captain Kang So-hwi speaks to reporters at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong on May 23. [YONHAP]

The national squad, after the first game against Germany, will play No. 1 Italy, No. 15 Czech Republic and No. 3 United States in the first week of VNL action, followed by matches against No. 8 Canada, No. 14 Belgium, No. 4 Turkey and No. 11 Dominican Republic in the second week and clashes against No. 6 Poland, No. 7 Japan, No. 20 Bulgaria and No. 19 France in the final week.

This year’s VNL also serves as a preparatory tournament for Korea ahead of the 2026 Asian Games, where Korea could seek redemption after failing to medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, which marked their first time doing so at the Asiad in 17 years.

Korea has seen disappointing results on the international stage since Korean volleyball star Kim Yeon-koung retired from national duty after leading the country to the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Kim also fully retired from the sport in April after sweeping both the 2024-25 V League and championship titles with the Pink Spiders.

The squad failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics last year on top of their poor results elsewhere, with its FIVB ranking plummeting from 14th in 2021 to 35th as of Wednesday.

Even Team Korea, which consisted of national team regular picks and played the two all-star women’s game series against Team Thailand in April, showcased poor performances, losing both games 3-1.

The level gap with other Asian countries like China and Japan has widened, with China reaching the quarterfinals and losing to eventual runners-up Japan in last year’s VNL.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]