VNL 2025

Korea squeeze out precious point from Bulgaria

The Asians lose in five, but push up from the bottom of the VNL table

Published 09:46, 12 Jul 2025

Korea (KOR) vs. Bulgaria (BUL) women - Pool 9 - Preliminary Phase #51202451

Two Korean blockers against the attack of Bulgaria’s Aleksandra Milanova

Saturday’s match program in the women’s Volleyball Nations League opened with a five-set battle in Chiba, Japan, where Bulgaria survived an assertive Korea to score a win and improve to a 4-7 win-loss record and 11 points in 13^th place in the current VNL standings. However, the point taken could prove a life-saver for Korea as they managed to push up from the relegation-doomed bottom of the table, move up to 17^th place on 1-10 and 5 and leave Thailand in the danger zone on a slightly worse set ratio. So the relegation resolution is left for the last day of the Preliminary Phase. On Sunday, Korea will take on France, while Thailand will fight for survival in a game against Canada. The North Americans, currently on 2-8 and 7 in 16^th place with a game in hand, are the third team in danger of dropping out, but winning two sets against USA on Saturday would put them in the safety zone.

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The match in Chiba started well for Bulgaria and they took a two-set lead, only to allow Korea to fight back for the next two and push the match to a tie-breaker. The Europeans regained the initiative in the fifth set to celebrate a narrow 3-2 (25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 15-13) victory.

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Outside hitters Aleksandra Milanova and Iveta Stanchulova led Bulgaria with 20 points apiece, while opposite Radostina Marinova added another 17. Middle blockers Mariya Krivoshiyska and 21-year-old Aleksandra Saykova also reached the double digits with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

“We really like to make our lives difficult, so we are used to it,” Marinova told VBTV. “But I am happy that we finished with a win, because it was important for us. We had a difficult game yesterday and we had to work things out for today. We knew that we needed to give all so we could win today. It was difficult, but I am happy that we did it in the end.”

Outside and captain Sohwi Kang once again led Korea’s scorers with a match-high 22 points. Opposite Jiyun Moon aced three times to tally a total of 15 points. Three Korean players – middle blockers Dahyeon Lee (four kill blocks) and Hoyoung Jung, and 22-year-old outside Yunju Jeong – finished with 13 points each.

“In today’s game with Bulgaria, we were really looking for the result and I am really sad that we didn’t get a win. On the other hand, we did very badly in the first and the second sets, but we continued the game to the fifth set and at least we got one point,” Dahyeon commented. “Let’s see tomorrow, but this one point can help us stay in the VNL. There is no other game left, so we will put in our 200% per cent of power tomorrow.”

Korea vs. Bulgaria - Highlights | Women's VNL 2025

The VNL day continues next with Japan entertaining Poland in a big match in Chiba, serving off at 19:20 local time (10:20 UTC), before Saturday’s action moves to Apeldoorn, Netherlands and then to Arlington, USA.