TEHRAN – Iran lost to Indonesia 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22) at the 2026 AVC Women's Volleyball Cup on Saturday.

The 2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup, featuring the 12 best Asian women’s national teams, outside those competing in the Volleyball Nations League, started on Saturday at the Candon City Arena, an 8,000-seater in the northern Filipino city of Candon, and will finish on June 14.

Formerly known as the AVC Women’s Challenge Cup, the annual international tournament was rebranded last year and will now hold its second edition as the AVC Women’s Nations Cup.

 In addition to vying for a prestigious continental trophy, the participating teams will aim at gaining valuable FIVB Volleyball World Ranking points and potentially at securing entry to the VNL and other top-tier competitions.

The 12 teams in the 2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup are divided into two single round-robin pools of six.

Hosts Philippines, who made the podiums at the previous two editions – with bronze in 2024 and silver in 2025 – lead the lineup in Pool A. The pool also features the bronze medalists of the 2023 and 2025 editions Chinese Taipei, Australia, who reached the semifinals in 2024, Uzbekistan, who finished fourth in 2022, as well as competition rookies Korea and Kyrgyzstan.

Defending three-time back-to-back champions Vietnam headline Pool B as well as Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Team Melli will play Kazakhstan on Monday.