Eight teams remain in contention for the 2013 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship set from Sept 13 to 21, 2013, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

Twelve-time Asian champions China is still the runaway favourite to win the crown, but undefeated teams like Kazakhstan, Japan and South Korea are looking to dethrone the Chinese in this tournament which serves as a qualifier for the 2013 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup.

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After the preliminary rounds, the teams now form two new groups (Pool E and Pool F) wherein they’ll play two more games before the quarterfinals pairing are set for the knockout rounds.

Kazakhstan (3-0), Japan (3-0), Vietnam (2-1) and hosts Thailand belong to Pool E and China (3-0), South Korea (3-0), Iran (2-1) and Chinese Taipei (2-1) make up Pool F.

While all remaining teams are already assured of a quarterfinals slot, each national team wants a better shot at surviving the KO round.

After the second round, the top team in each group will be facing the fourth-ranked or bottom team in the other group. The second-ranked team faces the third-ranked team and so on. (E1 vs. F4, E2 vs. F3, E3 vs. F2, E4 vs. F1)

2013 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship
2nd Round September 16 (Monday) – Australia Time

2:00 p.m. – South Korea vs. Iran
5:00 p.m. – Japan vs. Thailand
7:30 p.m. – Kazakhstan vs. Vietnam
10:00 p.m. – China vs. Chinese Taipei

Other teams out of contention will still play in the classification round. Australia, Mongolia, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Myanmar battle for the 9th to 16th places in the tournament.

2013 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship
Classification Round September 16 (Monday) – Australia Time

2:00 p.m. Australia vs. Hong Kong
5:00 p.m. Indonesia vs. Mongolia
7:00 p.m. Australia vs. Hong Kong
9:00 p.m. Sri Lanka vs. Philippines

The remaining eight teams in contention are also vying for berths in the 2014 FIVB World Grand Prix and the top eight teams have already qualified for the 2014 AVC Cup for Women.