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South Korea finished sixth in its debut at the 2026 FIVB Girls' U-17 World Championship. South Korea, coached by Lee Seung-yeo, lost to Italy 3-1 (25-20, 24-26, 25-20, 25-14) in the fifth-place match at Santiago National Stadium Park Court in Chile on Sunday. South Korea had beaten Italy 3-1 in the group stage eight days earlier but was unable to repeat the result against the world's third-ranked U-17 team. South Korea qualified for the tournament by winning the 2025 Asian U-16 Championship and went unbeaten in group play, defeating Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Italy, the Dominican Republic and Algeria. The team swept the Philippines 3-0 in the round of 16 before losing 3-1 to Turkey in the quarterfinals. South Korea then defeated Thailand in the fifth-to-eighth-place classification round before falling to Italy to finish sixth. South Korea fell behind 7-0 in the opening set and lost it 25-20. After trailing by a wide margin early in the second, South Korea erased a 24-22 deficit to level the match at one set apiece. South Korea led 16-15 in the third before Italy pulled away, and Italy dominated the fourth set 25-14 to close out the match. Captain Son Seo-yeon led South Korea with 20 points, including three blocks. Jang Su-in added 12 points and Lee Da-yeon had eight. Son played in all nine matches and scored 179 points, an average of 19.89 per match. She was tied for second in tournament scoring with Argentina's Sofia Emilia Baldo. Son's 41.24 percent attack efficiency ranked third among the tournament's top 10 scorers. (This article was produced with the assistance of AI. — Ed.) khnews@heraldcorp.com