The Koreans trailed 14-15 and 15-16 in the final set before fending off the tenacious Thais for a 20-25, 28-26, 14-25, 21-25, 18-16 victory in the eight-team round robin competition.

“I’m really happy to win today,” said relieved Korean captain Kim Sa-Nee after the battle lasting almost two hours.

“Our attacker, Han Yoo-Mi, couldn’t play today, so we were anxious. We got off to a good start, but we lost our concentration.”

Korean coach Lee Jung-Chul said he sidelined Han because of fitness problems, using Yim Myung-Ok instead. He was satisfied with Yim’s performance, saying: “I was able to give Han a rest today.”

“It was a match that we exchanged chances and crises repeatedly in turn,” said Lee, whose side also missed two match points. “My players overcame those crises by playing team work very well.”

South Korea beat Puerto Rico on Saturday.

Despite their second straight loss, Thai coach Nataphon Srisamutnak appeared satisfied with his team’s performance.

“We played our best performance today. We tried 100 percent to win the match. Although we missed the chances to win, our players, team staff, everybody did our best. We’ll do a little bit better in the next match,” he said.

Earlier, world bronze medallists Serbia overcame a slow start to beat the Dominican Republic 23-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-20, to add to their win over Kazakhstan.

“We knew very well before the game that it would be very, very difficult, because it was an important game for both of us,” said Serbian coach Zoran Terzic.

“Usually, the Dominican (Republic) don’t make many easy mistakes. We were very happy because they made so many mistakes in this game. This is the biggest reason why we won today. My players did a very good job,” he added.

The winners of the tournament along with the best-placed Asian nation and two other best-placed teams from the remaining six qualify for the Olympics.

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