South Korea finished in sixth place at the U-17 Women's Volleyball World Championship
The South Korean national team finished in sixth place at its debut FIVB U-17 Women’s Volleyball World Championship in 2026. In the fifth-place match, the team led by Lee Seung-yo lost to Italy 1–3—20–25, 26–24, 20–25, 14–25.
The match took place on Sunday at the Santiago National Stadium Park Court in Chile. Eight days earlier, the South Korean team had defeated the Italians in the group stage by the same 3-1 score. However, in the match for fifth place, South Korea was unable to repeat that result against the team ranked third in the U-17 world rankings.
In the first set, the South Koreans trailed 0–7 and ultimately lost it 20–25. In the second set, the team came back from a 22–24 deficit to tie the match at one set apiece. In the third set, South Korea led 16–15, but Italy seized the initiative. The Italians won the fourth set 25–14.
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South Korea qualified for the World Championship after winning the 2025 U-16 Asian Championship. In the group stage, the team won all of its matches against Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Italy, the Dominican Republic, and Algeria. The South Koreans then defeated the Philippines in the round of 16, lost to Turkey in the quarterfinals, and beat Thailand in the classification round for fifth through eighth place.
South Korea’s top scorer was captain Son So-yeon, who scored 20 points, including three blocks. Jang Su-in scored 12 points, and Lee Da-yeon scored eight.
Song So-yeon played in all nine matches of the tournament and scored 179 points—an average of 19.89 per match. She tied for second place on the tournament’s scoring leaderboard with Argentina’s Sofía Emilia Baldo. Her attack efficiency was 41.24%, ranking third among the tournament’s top ten scorers, according to the Korea Herald.
