Thailand survives VNL relegation, South Korea dropped to Challenger Cup

Peter Jandrei Melan

Thailand’s women’s volleyball team narrowly avoided relegation from the 2025 Volleyball Nations League (VNL), while South Korea was officially relegated following a tense final day of competition. 

Photo Courtesy of Grand Sport Thailand.

The decisive factor came down to match points and set ratio — metrics that proved more critical than win-loss records alone.

Both Thailand and South Korea ended their VNL campaigns with identical records of one win and eleven losses. However, the VNL’s point system, which rewards teams not only for wins but also for pushing matches to five sets, created a slim opportunity for Thailand to leapfrog Korea in the final standings.

In the final match of their campaign, Thailand lost to Canada in a tight five-setter, 3–2. While it was technically a loss, taking the match to five sets earned Thailand a valuable one point in the standings. That raised their total from five to six points — enough to surpass South Korea, who remained at five points after being swept 3–0 by France in their own final match.

Aside from match points, the VNL uses set ratio as a secondary tiebreaker. Set ratio is calculated by dividing the number of sets a team has won by the number of sets it has lost. 

Thailand finished with 11 sets won and 34 lost, resulting in a set ratio of 0.323. In contrast, Korea had an almost identical 11 sets won but 35 lost, putting their set ratio at 0.314. That slight margin further sealed Korea’s relegation fate.

Under FIVB rules, the lowest-ranked challenger team after the preliminary round is demoted to the Challenger Cup and replaced in the next VNL season by the winner of that lower-tier tournament. 

Korea, once a volleyball powerhouse and Olympic semifinalist led by legend Kim Yeon-koung, now finds itself relegated from the premier international competition.

Thailand’s players were seen in tears of joy after the Canada match, fully aware that their gritty five-set effort had saved their VNL spot. On the other hand, Korean players were visibly emotional in defeat, grappling with the reality of relegation — a stark contrast from the team’s former glory.

Thailand remained in the VNL not by winning more matches, but by earning more points and slightly outperforming Korea in set ratio. It was a vivid reminder of how critical every set and point can be in high-stakes international volleyball.

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