Women’s CAVA Cup 2025: Bangladesh win bronze with 3–0 victory over Afghanistan

Bangladesh finished third in the Women's CAVA Cup 2025 after a convincing 3–0 victory over Afghanistan in the third-place playoff at the Social Centre Indoor Hall in Male, Maldives, on Thursday.

The Bangladesh women's team avenged their earlier group-stage loss by defeating Afghanistan 25–20, 25–20, 25–15 to secure the bronze medal. In the round-robin stage, Bangladesh had earlier gone down 3–1 to Afghanistan.

Before the place-deciding match, Bangladesh were beaten in the semifinals by hosts Maldives, losing 25–17, 25–12, 25–12.

In the four-nation round-robin phase, Bangladesh struggled to find form and lost all three matches. They suffered straight-set defeats to Maldives (25–18, 25–12, 25–16) and Kyrgyzstan (25–15, 25–21, 25–11), before falling to Afghanistan in four sets (25–20, 25–21, 21–25, 25–16) in their final group match.

Despite the winless group stage, Bangladesh ended the tournament on a positive note with a strong performance in the bronze-medal match. Earlier against Afghanistan in the group stage, Sabina Khatun stood out with a match-high 21 points, although her effort was not enough to change Bangladesh's fortunes at that stage.