Professional volleyball team Heungkuk Life extended its winning streak to eight games with the help of “fixer” Kim Yeon-kyung.
Heungkuk Life won the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League Women’s match against Pepper Savings Bank 3-2 (25-10 20-25 25-22 22-25 17-15) in straight sets at Pepper Stadium in Gwangju on Monday.
Leader Heungkuk Life (11-1) extended its winning streak to eight games and reached the 30-point plateau. It pushed second-place Hyundai E&C (8-4, 26 points) to fourth place.
Last-place Pepper Savings Bank (2-10, 6-6), whose losing streak stretched to ‘5’, had to settle for a point.
Heungkuk Life’s Kim Yeon-kyung led the way with 25 points, including six in the decisive fifth set. Yelena chipped in with 32 points and Reina with 13.
Pepper Savings Bank got 34 points from Yasmin and 20 points from Park Jung-ah, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the loss.
Heungkuk Life held Pepper Savings Bank to 10 points in the first set before scoring 25 points. Yelena had eight points and Lee Ju-ah had six.
After losing the second set to a Pepper Savings Bank comeback, Heungkuk Life regained the advantage in the third set. At 18-18, they took the lead with back-to-back kills by Reina following an opponent error and reached set point with an open attack by Yelena at 23-22. Kim Mi-yeon then blocked Yasmin’s follow-up attack to end the third set.
Pepper Savings Bank was relentless in their quest to end the losing streak. Pepper Savings took the fourth set and pushed the match to a fifth set.
The fifth set was also close.
Heungkuk Life, led by Yelena, took a narrow lead, but Pepper Savings Bank continued to fight back.
At 8-7, Yelena scored a point on her own serve, and at 9-8, Heungkuk Life took advantage of a quick opener from Kim Yeon-kyung. At 11-10, Yelena scored a point with a follow-up attack.
The match swung back and forth in the closing stages.
Down 12-14, Pepper Savings Bank turned the game around with a late attack from Yasmin and consecutive blocks from Ha Hye-jin and Park Jung-ah.
However, Heungkuk Life had a ‘fixer’ in Kim Yeon-kyung. After an open attack from Yelena, Heungkuk Life regained the lead with an attack from Kim Yeon-kyung. Kim ended the game with a quick open.
In the men’s match in Daejeon, Samsung Fire defeated Hyundai Capital in straight sets 3-2 (25-22 21-25 22-25 25-21 15-11).
Samsung Fire, which was in fourth place, moved up to third (8-4, 21 points).
Sixth-ranked Hyundai Capital (2-10, 9 points) suffered its fifth straight loss.
After taking the first set, the team dropped the second and third sets in quick succession.
However, they turned the tide in the fourth set when they were facing defeat. At 12-11, they scored the next four points after Yosubani’s quick opener to widen the gap, and at 20-17, they overtook Hyundai Capital with kills from Kim Jun-woo and Kim Jung-ho.
Samsung Fire kept the momentum going in the fifth set.
After jumping out to an early 5-1 lead, Samsung Chemical made it 10-6 on a kill by Bum Sil and a kill by Kim Jun-woo. At 14-11, an open attack by Yosubani capped the set.
Samsung Fire’s Yosubani led the way with a game-high 38 points. He was supported by Kim Jung-ho with 12 points, Kim Jun-woo with 11 points, and Kim Woo-jin with 10 points.
Hyundai Capital was led by Ahmed with 28 points, while Jeon Kwang-in and Pei Chang each had 11 points, but they were unable to end their losing streak.