Defending champion Korea Expressway Corporation’s spring volleyball season is slipping away. With 10 games left, the team is 17 points out of third place (barring a three-point tie for fourth). It’s time to hit the rebuild button, but it’s a shame that Korea Expressway Corporation doesn’t have the players to do so.
On July 7, Korea Express suffered a shutout loss to IBK IBK in three sets, 0-3 (20-25, 24-26, 18-25), in the fifth round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League Women’s Regular Season at home at Gimcheon Indoor Gymnasium in Gimcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do.
No. 6 Korea Expressway Corporation, which failed to win back-to-back matches, dropped to 9-18 (28 points). Meanwhile, fifth-ranked IBK (12-14, 36 points) snapped a five-game losing streak and closed the gap on fourth-ranked Chung Kwan Jang (13-13, 41 points) to five points, reviving their hopes for spring volleyball.
IBK was led by Brittany Abercrombie (29-registered name Abercrombie) with 24 points, the highest total for both teams. Pyo Seung-ju and Hwang Min-kyung added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Libero Kim Chae-won played like an alto with her unselfish defense in place of Shin Yeon-kyung, who was unable to play due to injury. For Korea Expressway Corporation, outside hitter Vanya Vukiric (25-registered name Vukiric) scored 20 points, but it wasn’t enough. As the offense stabilized, the IBK trio of Abe Crombie, Pyo Seung-ju, and Hwang Min-kyung came alive, combining for 45 points in the win.
After the game, Korea Expressway Corporation head coach Kim Jong-min was not far behind. “Whenever we meet IBK, our reception is always shaky from the first set. I don’t think their serve is that strong, but we only attacked what we could see, so it was difficult for us to solve the game. They are a team with good set plays, so we have to attack them with our serve, but we had a lot of unforced errors and we couldn’t shake their reception, which made it difficult for us.”
Asian quota player Tanacha Sooksot (24-registered as Tanacha) had some good moments on offense, but was unable to help the team on defense. In the second set, which was 안전 토토사이트 the closest of the match, Kim had one last substitution left and was hoping to bring in a more defensive player in Tanacha’s place, but Tanacha did not live up to the expectations. “I thought about changing Tanacha, but I expected her to be able to hold on when the opponent hit the target, but she was shaky,” Kim said.
With spring volleyball a distant memory, it’s time to start thinking about rebuilding. Although Kim Se-bin, a potential Rookie of the Year candidate, has been playing consistently, the rest of the team hasn’t seen the court yet. “We need to give young players a chance to develop, but we need to determine if there are players who have the potential to become the mainstay of the team in the future. If there are such players, we will invest in them, but the situation is ambiguous at the moment,” he said.