Korea crash out of Asian Volleyball Championship after worst performance ever

The Korean women’s volleyball team lost 3-0 to Thailand on Sunday, failing to reach the semifinals of the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship for the first time ever.

Korea's Jung Ho-young, center, attacks during an Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship game against Thailand at Chartchai Hall in Thailand on Sunday. [ASIAN VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION]

The Korean women’s volleyball team lost 3-0 to Thailand on Sunday, failing to reach the semifinals of the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship for the first time ever.

Korea had to beat host country Thailand in order to stay alive in Pool E — played with a round-robin format with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals — but they failed to win a single set.

Korea lost the first set 25-20 and the second 25-22, before losing the third set 25-23. The 3-0 loss followed by Vietnam’s victory over Australia later in the day effectively eliminated Korea from the tournament, with the remaining games only serving to determine the fifth to eight-place finishers.

This year’s Volleyball Championship has been Korea’s worst run in history, having failed to join the final four for the first time since their first participation in the tournament in 1975.

Korea have recorded two wins and two losses so far — a victory against Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei and losses against Vietnam and Thailand.

Those stats are still better than what Korea managed in the Volley Nations League in July, where they suffered 12 straight losses.

The win against Chinese Taipei on Thursday was also their first win since a victory over Croatia at the Volleyball Women’s World Championship in October 2022.

Their performance is especially concerning as they have a tough schedule still to come, including the Paris Olympics qualifiers and Hangzhou Asian Games ahead of them after the Volleyball Championship.

Korea has to beat the likes of No. 2 United States and No. 6 Italy to qualify for the Olympics. They can also land in the competition based on the FIVB World Ranking by June 2024, prioritizing continents that do not have qualified teams in the competition. That road will still be tough considering Korea is ranked at No. 37, while China is ranked at No. 5 and Japan is No. 8.

China and Japan both showed a good performance in this year’s Volleyball Championship, reaching the semifinals so far.

As of press time Monday, Korea were due to face Australia for their last game in Pool E on the same day.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]