South Korea is looking to capitalize on its perfect conquest of the 2026 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Women’s Volleyball Cup as it shifts its sights on the Asian Games in September.
The Koreans stormed to their first-ever title in the prestigious continental tournament by completing a seven-game sweep, including a 25-19, 25-19, 25-22, win over Chinese Taipei in the gold medal match last Sunday at the Candon City Arena in Ilocos Sur.
Slowly building its confidence after getting kicked out of the Volleyball Nations League following a disappointing 1-11 win-loss campaign in 2025, Korea is determined to regain lost glory in the Aichi-Nagoya Asiad slated 19 September to 4 October.
“Every time we won in each game, our teammates had this fire in their eyes that they were able to do it. And I was able to catch their expressions full of confidence,” Korea team captain Kang Sowhi said.
The South Koreans face a tall task of getting back in the podium after a fifth-place finish three years ago in the pandemic-delayed Hangzhou edition of the quadrennial continental multi-sport event.
Korea’s last gold medal in the Asiad was in 2014 in Incheon.
“I hope we’ll bring this good energy into the Asian Games. Probably we’ll have a good result there,” added Sowhi, who was named AVC Cup Most Valuable Player and Best Outside Hitter.
South Korea swept Pool A of the AVC Cup with victories over Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Australia, Alas Pilipinas and a five-set escape over the Taiwanese.
The Koreans dethroned Vietnam in the semifinal before routing Chinese Taipei for the crown.
“For us, while we were in the VNL, we were losing many games. Our confidence was really low,” Sowhi said.
“I felt that the value of the wins in the AVC, every time we won, we tried our best to take the ranking points. I’m really happy that we were able to achieve this goal in this competition.”