Women's World Championship 2025

Japan beat defending champions to top pool in Thailand

Japan will take on the home team, while Serbia will challenge the Netherlands in Friday’s eighthfinals

Published 01:29, 27 Aug 2025

Japan (JPN) vs. Serbia (SRB) women - Pool H #56835542

Japan’s playmaker Nanami Seki in action against Serbia

Japan and defending two-time champions Serbia battled it out in four sets for the top of Pool H at the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship in Thailand. On Wednesday in Bangkok, the Asian team outplayed their European opponents to leave them in second place in the pool standings, setting up eighthfinal match-ups between Japan and Thailand and between the Netherlands and Serbia, both on Friday, August 29. In the last Pool H game, Ukraine and Cameroon will lock horns for the third place in the table at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC) before leaving the tournament.

Watch the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship on VBTV

With 60 spike kills against 48, Japan completely outperformed Serbia in attack on the way to a 3-1 (25-23, 30-28, 23-25, 25-18) victory, shaped up with a double block by middle Airi Miyabe and setter Nanami Seki for the match winning point.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Volleyball World (@volleyballworld)

Outside hitter and captain Mayu Ishikawa led the winners with 19 points, including two of the team’s three aces in the match. Opposite Yukiko Wada added another 15 points, while the other outside, Yoshino Sato, finished with 13.

“Yesterday, I was at the Thailand v Netherlands game. It was a fantastic atmosphere. So, I am looking forward to the match against the home team,” Japan’s Turkish head coach Ferhat Akbas told VBTV. “The first two games were very difficult for us because of our injuries, but today our injured players played well, so it was a happy day for us. Victory is always good, regardless of whether it was important for the ranking or not. Now we need to focus on the next game.”

Serbia did better than Japan in net defense by 10-6 in kill blocks and in serving by 4-3 in aces. They also had the best scorer of the match in 21-year-old outside Aleksandra Uzelac, who finished with 20 points. Middle blocker Maja Aleksic put away four kill blocks and an ace to finish with a total of 11 points. Opposite Vanja Bukilic, who replaced injured star Tijana Boskovic, also reached the double digits with 10 points, including two aces and two kill blocks.