Japan suffered its first loss of the women's Olympic volleyball final qualifiers in a 3-1 (28-26, 25-17, 17-25, 25-19) defeat to archrival South Korea on Tuesday.
South Korea captain and London Olympic MVP Kim Yeon-koung blasted her way to a game-high 24 points, Kim Hee-jin adding 12. Miyu Nagaoka led Japan with 20 points.
The two teams met for the first time in Olympic qualifying, with South Korea also winning in the final qualifiers for London four years ago.