Remarkable Progress
Since 2023 to date, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team has continuously participated in international competitions, achieving impressive results, demonstrating continuous progress. This has helped to completely change the face of Vietnamese volleyball from before to now.
In 2023, the team led by coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt started by participating in the 2023 Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship (April 2023, at Vĩnh Phúc) and won the championship. Subsequently, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team won the Silver Medal at SEA Games 32, won the AVC Challenge Cup 2023, participated in the quarterfinals of the FIVB Challenger Cup 2023, won the SEA V.League 2032, won the VTV Cup 2023, ranked 4th in the 2023 Asian Championship, ranked 4th at the 19th ASIAD, and participated in the 2024 Women's Club World Championship.
Thanh Thúy and her teammates have continuously been tested with various styles and volleyball backgrounds from different continents such as France, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Thailand... The team has been strengthened, accumulated expertise, confidence, and determination when competing. In 2024, despite being evaluated to have fewer competitions than in 2023, the team led by coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt still participated in international competitions continuously in the first half of the year and achieved impressive results. With the return of opposite hitter Bích Tuyền, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team won the AVC Challenge Cup 2024, ranked 3rd in the FIVB Challenger Cup 2024, and performed well in the 2 stages of the SEA V.League 2024.
The players have shown progress when competing against the strongest volleyball teams in Southeast Asia, which is Thailand. In both stages of the SEA V.League 2024, the Vietnamese girls won more than 1 set against the Thai team for the first time. The aggressive and relentless style of play has made it difficult for the opposing team's offense. Especially, the students of coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt only accepted defeat when they were 2 points behind the Thai Women's Volleyball Team in set 5 at the final match of stage 1.
After the players' performance, coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt confirmed: "Although we are not on day 1, day 2 that we can catch up with the level of Thailand, but the gap between the volleyball levels of the two countries has been shortened."
Accumulating for SEA Games 33
Currently, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team is ranked 32nd in the world. This progress has proven the improvement of the Vietnamese girls in recent times.
Although, in Southeast Asia, Thailand is the strongest opponent of the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team. On the world ranking, Thailand is ranked 14th, 18 places ahead of Vietnam. In history, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team has never won the Gold Medal at the SEA Games when the highest position has always been held by the Thai team.
However, with what the Vietnamese players have shown in recent times, coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt has confidently set a target to aim for SEA Games 33 from now on.
"In previous years, when competing with Thailand, Vietnam defaulted to lose, but now, even without captain Trần Thị Thanh Thúy, we still have impressive sets. I hope that if we have the strongest lineup, with the support of main spiker Trần Thị Thanh Thúy, Vietnam is ready to compete fairly with Thailand at SEA Games 33 held in Thailand in 2025", coach Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt said.
Although the goal is that way, it is clear that for Vietnam to overcome the Thai team and win the Gold Medal at the SEA Games in women's volleyball is still very difficult. To achieve this, Bích Tuyền and her teammates need to prepare mentally, improve their mental state, and take advantage of every competition to test and accumulate expertise.
Only then, at SEA Games 2025 held in Thailand, the Vietnamese Women's Volleyball Team will have a chance to compete fairly with the host team, thereby realizing the dream of changing the color of the medal.
