In the women’s professional volleyball, No. 5 Korea Expressway Corporation defeated No. 4 Jeong Kwanjang in a full-set thriller to narrow the gap to one point.
Korea Expressway Corporation defeated Jeong Kwan-jang with a set score of 3-2 (23-25 25-15 25-17 20-25 15-13) in a home match of the Professional Volleyball Dodram 2023-2024 V League at Gimcheon Gymnasium in Gyeongsangbuk-do, North Gyeongsang Province, on the 18th.
Korea Road Corporation won its second straight match and improved to 3-6, 11-1. Chung Kwan-jang (4-5, 12 points), who lost his third straight match, had to settle for a point.
Things didn’t get off to a great start for Korea Express. Breathing issues were exposed in the first set, as the team attacked only 27.8% of the time.
Bum-shil (5) had half as many kills as Jung Kwan-jang (10), but they were unable to mount an effective offense and lost the first set.
The tide of the match shifted in favor of Korea Road Corporation in the second set.
This time, Jung Kwan-jang showed extreme concentration problems. The defense completely collapsed as the team’s receiving efficiency was only 14.29%.
Their setter, Yeom Hye-sun, even threw a toss to the wrong place at 6-11 in the second set.
KDOT didn’t miss it. They followed up the second set with an easy third.
However, they were unable to close out the match in the fourth set.
The match went to a fifth set as they were unable to effectively stop their opponents’ Asian quarterfinalist Megawatti Putthiwi (registered name Mega).
The match was intense. Korea Expressway Corporation used the height of Vanya Vukiric (registered name Vukiric) to extend its lead to 13-8, but four consecutive errors on Mega’s serve brought the score to 13-12.
Just when things were about to get out of hand, Mega, who was tired of hitting hard serves, made a service error.
Korea Expressway Corporation was in danger again at 14-12 when Tanacha’s spike was blocked by Yeom Hye-sun, but Tanacha’s push attack on the final attack ended the match with a hard-fought victory.
Vukiric finished with 27 points, Tanacha had 21 points, and Mega finished with 33 points.
Both teams had a disappointing performance on the other end of the floor, with Korea Expressway Corporation committing 24 turnovers and Jung Kwan-jang committing 26.
In the men’s game at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon, KEPCO earned its first back-to-back wins of the season, beating Korean Air, which was looking for its sixth straight win.
KEPCO won the visiting Korean Air 3-1 (25-22 22-25 25-14 30-28) in straight sets.
KEPCO improved to 9 points (3-6) and moved up one spot to fifth place, ahead of Hyundai Capital (8-2).
Meanwhile, second-place Korean Air (19-6 W-3 L), which was riding a five-game winning streak, failed to add another point to close the gap on first-place Woori Card (22-8 W-1 L).
KEPCO led Korean Air 15-5 in blocked shots on the day. KEPCO also outperformed Korean Air in attack success rate, 64.51% to 46.29%.
Taith Lesser Host (real name Taith) had a team-high 29 points on a 65.79% attack percentage, while Lim Sung-jin added 15 points.
Veteran middle blocker Shin Young-seok (13 points) kept Korean Air’s offense in check with six blocked shots.
For Korean Air, Lim Dong-hyuk (19 points) led the way, but Jeong Jung-yong (12 points), who had been filling in well in the absence of Jung’s injury, had his winning streak halted as he struggled with a 31.03% attack percentage. Four consecutive service aces by Lincoln Williams (real name Lincoln) at the end of the fourth set were also overshadowed by the team’s loss. 파워볼
