12-team AVC Women’s Nations Cup to serve off on Saturday in Philippines

The 2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup, featuring the 12 best Asian women’s national teams, outside those competing in the Volleyball Nations League, is about to serve off on Saturday, June 6, in the Philippines. The Candon City Arena, an 8,000-seater in the northern Filipino city of Candon, is set to welcome the matches leading to the prestigious continental trophy to be raised by the winner on June 14. All the action in Candon will be streamed live on the Volleyball World YouTube channel.

• Watch the AVC Women's Nations Cup on the Volleyball World YouTube channel

Formerly known as the AVC Women’s Challenge Cup, the annual international tournament was rebranded last year and will now hold its second edition as the AVC Women’s Nations Cup. In addition to vying for a prestigious continental trophy, the participating teams will aim at gaining valuable FIVB Volleyball World Ranking points and potentially at securing entry to the VNL and other top-tier competitions.

The 12 teams in the 2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup are divided into two single round-robin pools of six.

Hosts Philippines, who made the podiums at the previous two editions – with bronze in 2024 and silver in 2025 – lead the lineup in Pool A. The pool also features the bronze medalists of the 2023 and 2025 editions Chinese Taipei, Australia, who reached the semifinals in 2024, Uzbekistan, who finished fourth in 2022, as well as competition rookies Korea and Kyrgyzstan.

Defending three-time back-to-back champions Vietnam headline Pool B. They will take on debutants Lebanon in the tournament’s opening game in Candon on Saturday morning at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC). 2024 silver medalists Kazakhstan, who also reached the semifinals last year, and 2022 runners-up Indonesia, are also in this pool, along with Iran and 2022 champions Hong Kong.

The pool stage of the AVC Women’s Nations Cup will take place from Saturday, June 6, to Friday, June 12, with a rest day on June 10. Each competition day will offer the fans five matches on the program.

After a total of 30 pool games played, the two pool winners will take on the runners-up of the other pools in crossed semifinals on June 13, thus determining the teams to play in the bronze medal and the gold medal matches on June 14. Also on June 13, the two sixth-placed teams from the pools will meet in the 11^th-place match and the two fifth-placed teams will contest the ninth place. Similarly, on June 14, the two fourth-placed teams will lock horns for the seventh place, while the two third-placed teams will battle it out for the fifth place in the final standings.

2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup: match schedule

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