Of course, a single win in the match against Thailand does not mean that Korea will lose its 30th consecutive VNL title. However, it is very encouraging to see that the Korean team has secured its first win in just four matches since Fernando Morales took the helm (former Cesar Hernandez Gonzalez needed 17 matches to win his first title since taking the helm). It is certainly a great achievement for the Korean women's volleyball team, which had been in a slump since Kim Yeon-koung's retirement, to find glimmer of hope under Morales.
In the match against Thailand, a triangle formation consisting of two outside heaters and one apogit spiker collaborated with 54 points to lead Korea's victory. In particular, Lee led Korea's attack by scoring 22 points, the most between the two teams, and scored 51 points in the four games of this VNL tournament, ranking 15th in the scoring category. Kang So-hwi, who has become the new ace of Korean women's volleyball through this VNL competition, is the main character.
As with most group ball games, the role of the ace in leading the team is very important in volleyball. Of course, Korean women's volleyball did not have to worry about the ace from the mid-to-late 2000s to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In its heyday, there was world-renowned star Kim Yeon-koung, who commanded overseas leagues such as Japan and Turkiye and was called the "Messi of Women's Volleyball" and the "Volleyball Empress." In fact, Kim Yeon-koung's heyday soon marked the golden age of Korean women's volleyball.
However, Kim Yeon-koung retired from the national team after the semi-finals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the Korean women's volleyball team needed a new center to lead the team. In particular, as middle blockers Kim Su-ji and Yang Hyo-jin left the national team at the same time, they hoped to have a new ace among those born in the 1990s. When Kim Yeon-koung retires from the national team, the new ace in Korean women's volleyball that volleyball fans have been looking forward to the most was Kim Hee-jin, the main player of the national team.
Since the 2012 London Olympics, Kim has served as a middle blocker for his team and an apogit spiker for his team, but has always played his part as the team's second option after Kim Yeon-koung. However, Kim, who had struggled to participate in the Tokyo Olympics despite his knee problems, forced his participation in the 2022 VNL competition, but his injury worsened further. After all, Kim had surgery in February last year, and is currently excluded from the national team.
Park Jung-ah was evaluated as not receiving well throughout her career, and in fact, she was exempted from receiving when she was a high-pass player at the Korea Expressway Corporation. However, Park Jung-ah showed off the prowess of the "Clutch Park" by enduring her opponent's serve well as an outside heater in the last Tokyo Olympics and playing a decisive role in the attack. In fact, without Park Jung-ah's performance in important games, it would have been very difficult for Korea to advance to the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Park Jung-ah, who has emerged as the new leader who will lead the post Kim Yeon-koung era, has been named the new captain of the Korean national team since the 2022 VNL competition. However, Park was not able to play the role of captain and ace at the same time as Kim. Korean women's volleyball has been sluggish for two consecutive years since Park took the helm due to the VNL defeat, zero points, and no medal at the Doha Asian Games.
Having started his professional career by joining GS Caltex KIXX in 2015, Kang has been on the national team since the qualifying round for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, the team had prominent seniors such as Park Jung-ah, who was good at height and attack, and Lee Jae-young, who was good at offense and defense, while Kang often played as a substitute. The reason why it took a long time for Kang to establish himself in the national team was that he suffered injuries more than his initial age.
Kang was also excluded from the national team's roster in the 2021 VNL competition due to her ankle injury ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, but failed to participate in the Olympics as she underwent ankle surgery. However, as Kim Yeon-koung retired from the national team after the Tokyo Olympics, one outside heater position became vacant, and Kang scored 86 points along with Park Jung-ah (92 points) in the 2022 VNL competition. Kang also scored 83 points in last year's VNL competition, tying for first in her team.
The competition in which Kang emerged as the ace skater for Korean women's volleyball was the Hangzhou Asian Games. Although Korea failed to win a medal in this competition for the first time in 17 years, Kang displayed stellar performance by scoring 23 points against Vietnam, 18 points against Nepal, 24 points against North Korea, and 21 points against Taiwan. In this year's first game against China in the first week of VNL, Kang alone scored double-digit points (11 points) within her team, playing the role of Korea's ace.
Kang, who scored nine points apiece in the match against Brazil on the 17th and the match against the Dominican Republic on the 19th, displayed his "Ace Mode" properly in the match against Thailand on the 20th. Kang scored the most 22 points in both teams, along with an attack success rate of 40.43% and a serve score against Thailand. In defense, Kang participated in 26 receptions, the most in his team, and did not allow a single serve score, and kicked 17 digs such as Han Da-hye Libero.
South Korea's women's volleyball team, which won one valuable win in four games in the first week in Brazil, will hold its second week in the U.S. from the 30th. And South Korea's first opponent in the second week of the schedule is Bulgaria, which lost four consecutive games in the first week and fell to the bottom of the 16 participating countries. South Korea, which has been on the rise by ending its 30th consecutive losing streak, is a suitable opponent to challenge for consecutive wins.토토사이트 순위