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Korean women's volleyball team earns first point in VNL with 3-2 loss to Czech Republic

Published: 08 Jun. 2025, 14:48 Updated: 08 Jun. 2025, 20:15

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

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 Korean women’s volleyball team lost 3-2 to world No. 13 Czech Republic in the 2025 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, securing their first point in their third loss of this year’s tournament.

Korea, who headed to the match on the back of two 3-0 losses in the VNL, made Saturday’s contest a fairly competitive affair in the first three sets, winning the first 25-17, losing the second 25-17 and claiming the third 25-21.

But the squad’s efforts fell short thereafter. They lost the fourth set 25-9 and last set 15-9 for a final 3-2 score, capturing a single point. A team that loses 3-2 in a volleyball match earns one point, and the winning side takes two.

The national squad, led by head coach Fernando Morales, still demonstrated improvements on the attack, with three players — outside hitters Kang So-hwi and Lee Sun-woo and middle blocker Lee Da-hyeon — all scoring double-digit points for the first time in this year’s VNL.

Not a single Korean player had scored double digit points before Saturday’s match.

Korea sits in 17th place on the 18-team table with one point as of press time Sunday, one place above Thailand.

Korea needs to add more points in order to avoid relegation. Starting with this year's VNL, the last-place team at the end of the preliminary stage loses their eligibility to participate in next year’s tournament.

All participating countries this year will play in the preliminary stage through mid-July, with top eight teams joining the knockout stage later that month.

The Korean squad needs a minimum of three wins in order to surpass their stats last year, during which the team secured two wins out of 12 preliminary stage matches after losing every match in the 2022 and 2023 editions.

Korea was due to face No. 7 United States on Sunday as of press time.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]