The South Korean women’s national volleyball team (ranked 36th in the world) dropped its first match of the Paris 2024 Olympic qualification tournament against Italy (ranked fifth).

Led by head coach Cesar Hernández González, South Korea fell to Italy in straight sets, 0-3 (11-25 20-25 17-25), in the first match of Group C of the qualification tournament in Łódź, Poland, on Sunday (July 17).

The team fell behind by four points at the start of the first set and dropped the first set by a large margin.

In the second set, the team took a 3-0 lead with an open attack by Bum Sil and Kwon Min-ji (GS Caltex) and a block by Lee Ju-ah (Heungkuk Life). However, Bumseul made a series of errors and allowed them to take the lead.

The Korean team was unable to overcome the big deficit in the third set and finished the match the same way.

They were out-blocked by Italy in all areas, including blocking 3-10, service aces 0-2, and attacks 30-52.

Kang So-hwi (GS Caltex) was the only member of the team to score in double figures with 10 points, while captain Park Jung-ah (Pepper Savings Bank) had six.

South Korea will play its second game of the tournament on Nov. 18 against the home team, Poland (No. 7).

Poland, ranked No. 7 in the world, defeated Slovenia (No. 27) in straight sets, 3-0, earlier in the day.먹튀검증

The Koreans, who are in Group C, need to finish in the top two out of eight teams to advance to the main draw in Paris. South Korea, Italy, Poland, Germany, the United States, Colombia, Thailand, and Slovenia are in Group C.