Men’s professional volleyball Korean Air was unable to stop Woori Card’s opening four-game winning streak after playing the longest game in the history of the sport (165 minutes).
Korean Air dropped their first round match of the 2023-24 Dodram V League Men’s Division against Woori Card, 2-3 (25-13, 34-32, 30-32, 18-25, 15-17) at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on Friday. The offense was led by main gun Lincoln, ‘Salaryman’ Kwak Seung-seok, Jung Jeong-yong, who filled in for ace Jung Ji-seok’s injury (back), and Jeong Jin-wi, who had a five-set standout performance, but they couldn’t get over the final hurdle.
Korean Air suffered its first setback of the 2022-23 season on Nov. 19, losing 2-3 at the bottom-ranked Samsung Fire. For the first time in their history, the Woori Cards were on a high after winning three straight games to open the season. In the end, they were unable to overcome their opponents in a bad flow.
The first set was easy. The score was 25-13, with a team attacking success rate of 63.16% and a 5-0 lead in blocks. Lincoln scored seven points, while Kwak Seung-seok and Jeong Jung-yong contributed four points each.
Set 2 was a close one. Korean Air took a three-point lead at 9-9 with back-to-back kills by middle blocker Lee Soo-hwang and a back-attack kill by Lincoln, but then gave up back-to-back kills by Kim Ji-han, a kill by Mattei, and a kill by Han Sung-jung.
Korean Air was unable to stop Matei, who showed the most outstanding performance among the ‘new’ foreign players, and was dragged down to set point (23-24). However, the opponent’s serve reception was shaky and he hit the ball directly over the net to tie the score, and after a successful defense, Park Jin-woo scored a fastball to take the lead.
From there, it was a back-and-forth battle. Both teams scored one after the other until 32-32. However, Korean Air eventually took the second set. Jeong Jung-yong’s open attack was recognized as a point after a video review, and his opponent Matei’s diagonal open attack went off the sideline to make it a two-point game.
Korean Air was forced to take the third set. They couldn’t stop Matei as they entered the 10th point. They couldn’t tie the game and gave up 20 points. However, at 18-21, Lee Soo-hwang made a kill and Jeong Jung-yong intercepted Matei’s back-attack to pull within one point. On defense, Lee shook the opponent’s reception with a strong serve and forced Matei’s attack error to tie the score at 21-21.
With the momentum in their favor, Korean Air saved their first match point and repeatedly took the lead in the deuce game. However, they eventually dropped the third set. At 30-30, an unsuccessful attack left Kim Ji-han open, and a subsequent defense gave Matei a touchdown.
After losing a close game, Korean Air was unable to regain its momentum in the fourth set. With the score at eight points midway through the set, Korean Air head coach Tommi Tilikainen eventually pulled his starters, including Han, Kwak Seung-seok, and Lincoln. Korean Air eventually conceded the 25th point with a seven-point deficit.
Game 5. Korean Air conceded the first two points as Matei got an open attack and Lincoln’s attack was blocked by Park Jin-woo. At this point, Asia Quarterly recruit Essipeho made a quick open and serve ace to tie the game. The game went back and forth. Korean Air cut the deficit to four points, but at 4-8, Jin Ji-wi scored a kill and then blocked Matei’s back-attack. He scored again at 8-10 when he pushed the ball right over the net.토스카지노 주소
Korean Air then pulled within one point as Lincoln came alive. The unstoppable Matei made an error to tie the score at 12-12. Jeong Jeong-yong joined the scoring and the match continued to be close. In the end, the fifth set went to deuce.
However, at 15-15, Matej was unable to stop another attack from Espejo, and his quick-open attempt was blocked by Han Tae-joon. The match ended three hours after it started.
After the match, head coach Tilikainen said, “We scored easily in the first set. It was unfortunate that we didn’t capitalize on our scoring opportunities in the third set. It was our performance at the end of the set that cost us the match.” “It was a matter of millimeters,” he said, praising the fight of the players who shared the victory. Our organization is still good.”
Leave a Reply