Women’s professional volleyball Hyundai E&C has won four straight games. The team overcame Yang Hyo-jin’s intense defense to win a thrilling upset.
Hyundai E&C played its final match of the second round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League at Gimcheon Indoor Gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. The team was all smiles with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-21) upset victory over Korea Expressway Corporation.
On the day, Leticia Moma Basoko (registered name Moma) scored 32 points, including two serves and one block, while Yang Hyo-jin and Wipawi Sitong 바카라사이트 (registered name Wipawi) contributed 15 and 11 points, respectively. Jung Jeong-yoon also contributed 10 points.
In the first set, Yang Hyo-jin was unable to break through the opponent’s blocking and defense, scoring just two points. KDOT’s defense was thorough. Yang had an 18.18% attack percentage in the first set, but her attack efficiency was zero.
After that, Yang Hyo-jin started to come alive. Her attack percentage increased. In the second set, she scored four points on a 24.24% attack percentage, and in the third set, she scored a team-high six points. Her attack percentage in the third set was 28.57% and her attack efficiency was 50%. In the fourth set, the team again scored three points with a 17.15% attack percentage, but Moma and Jeong Ji-yoon scored eight and four points, respectively, to win the match.
After the match, Hyundai E&C head coach Kang Sung-hyung said, “When Hyojin takes possession, it becomes difficult if the opponent defends and counterattacks after the bounce. On the contrary, if it goes smoothly, it becomes easier. We got stuck at the beginning of the game today. I ordered a toss that went out quickly to both sides because there were players in the center, but the timing was not right with Wipawi at the beginning.” “They want to defend Hyojin Lee intensively. You can’t do it with just one mom. We have Jiyun and Wipawi, so we have to take the share and work our way through it.”
Setter Kim Dain added, “They [Korea Expressway Corporation] definitely have a low blocking formation. We tried to take advantage of that. Jiyoon wasn’t feeling well today, so I think I was thinking about myself a lot in the beginning. I think I was thinking about myself in the beginning because Jiyun wasn’t feeling well today.”
It was an evenly matched performance on the day, with Moma, Yang Hyo-jin, Wipawi, and Jeong Jung-yoon all contributing more than 10% of the offense. Moma had the most at 35.37%, followed by Yang Hyo-jin and Wipawi at 21.77% and 17.01%, respectively, and Jeong Ji-yoon at 14.97%.
Sets 2-4 were all in favor of Hyundai E&C, but both teams were evenly matched. HMC was inferior in receive efficiency, but outperformed Korea Expressway Corporation in attack efficiency. HCE’s receiving efficiency was 41.25%, which was lower than its opponent’s 52.17%, but its attack efficiency was 39.46%, which was higher than its opponent’s 29.49%. HCE had an advantage in finishing after connecting at crucial moments.
“Roadworks has a very good defensive position. This makes it difficult to play against them every time.” Jeong Ji-yoon and substitute Go Go-ji also got more playing time. Go Kom-ji kept the team’s rally alive with her steady connection to Suba. Coach Kang said, “Ji-yoon was not in good shape. She had a slight injury in training. It’s nothing serious,” Kang said, adding, “Today, Moma was in good shape, so I thought it would be better if she was more stable in defense, so I kept her on the court.”
Korea Expressway Corporation head coach Kim Jong-min also mentioned the ‘invisible mistake’. “There was a big difference in our defense and connection when it was crucial,” Kim said. We played well in the first set, but there were a lot of invisible errors in the second and fourth sets. Even if we went together, there was a difference. It happened again and again,” he said.
Korea Expressway Corporation was unable to continue the flow of the first set and suffered an upset loss. Hyundai E&C, on the other hand, showed its strength and increased its winning streak to four. With 8 wins and 4 losses (26 points), they finished in second place, closing the gap between them and leader Heungkuk Life (10 wins and 1 loss, 28 points).
In conclusion, Kang said, “It’s great to get five wins in the second round. We had an unstable first round, but we’re playing well in the second round. We didn’t play well today, but we played well in the previous games, and I think we will continue to have our own color and become stronger regardless of whether we win or lose. When the injured players come in, we’ll have a chance to rest,” he said.