The 2018 Asian Women's U17 Volleyball Championship, also referred to as the 2018 SMM Est Cola Asian Girls' U17 Volleyball Championship for sponsorship reasons, was the twelfth edition of the Asian Youth Women Volleyball Championship, a biennial international volleyball tournament organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), that year with the Thailand Volleyball Association (TVA), for the under-17 women's national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, from 20 to 27 May 2018.
A total of thirteen teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2001 eligible to participate.
Like the previous editions, the tournament acted as the AVC qualifiers for the FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship. The top four teams qualified for the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship as the AVC representatives.
The thirteen AVC member associations (including the India volleyball team under the Indian Olympic Association, who was suspended by the FIVB, and whose suspension was lifted in May 2018) participated in the tournament, with Thailand already qualified as host country. Eight of the teams participated in the 2017 Asian Girls' U18 Volleyball Championship, while three did not participate in that previous edition. The thirteen AVC member associations were from four zonal associations, namely, Central Asia (3 teams), East Asia (5 teams), Oceania (2 team) and Southeast Asia (2 teams). No West Asian teams participated in this edition.
The following teams qualified for the tournament.
This was the first Asian Women's U17 Volleyball Championship to use the new competition format. Following the 2017 AVC Board of AdministrationâÂÂs unanimous decision, the new format saw teams being drawn into three or four pools up to the total amount of the participating teams. Each team, as well as the host side, were assigned into a pool according to their previous ranking (2017 Asian Girls' U18 Volleyball Championship). As the three best-ranked teams were drawn in the same Pool A, the next best three contested in Pool B, and the next best three contesting in Pool C. Pool D comprised teams that finished as the next best four teams.
Players born on or after 1 January 2002 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team were made to register a squad of 12 players from 19 players of their preliminary squad, per Regulations Articles 4.5, 4.6, 5.4 and 5.5.
Match won 3âÂÂ0 or 3âÂÂ1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser<br /> Match won 3âÂÂ2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser<br /> Match forfeited: 0 match points for each.