Men’s professional volleyball Korean Air continued its high-altitude march.
Korean Air won a set score of 3-2 (24-26 25-17 25-23 19-25 15-11) in a home game against KEPCO in the men’s division of the Dodram 2022-2023 V-League held at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on the 15th.
With this, Korean Air maintained its leading position by winning 5 consecutive victories. On the other hand, KEPCO even pulled out an ‘anomaly card’ that used Tais Dulle Host as an apogee spiker unlike usual, but suffered 4 consecutive losses.
From the 1st set, the deuce battle… The match was the 5th set of fate, and
the match between the two teams sparked from the 1st set. The tight battle with repeated ties led to 24-24 deuce, and KEPCO took the first set with Thais’ quick open and Seo Jae-deok’s open attack.
Korean Air immediately counterattacked as if it were in the lead. As in the first set, a strong attack continued, and the blocking of Lim Dong-hyuk and Kwak Seung-seok added defense, widening the score gap. And continuing the atmosphere, the set score was balanced 1-1.
On the other hand, KEPCO’s setter Ha Seung-woo injured his finger while blocking, and Tais was replaced due to knee pain.
The 3rd set was also a close match, but Korean Air’s support was stronger. With the score tied 23-23, Korean Air made a set point with Lincoln Williams’ successful open attack. However, KEPCO lost up to 3 sets as Tais’ attack on the conversion was blocked.
Driven to the edge of a cliff, KEPCO resisted with Thais and Lim Seong-jin’s sub aces. On the other hand, Korean Air committed frequent mistakes as if they let go of tension too early, and eventually the match entered the fateful 5th set as KEPCO won the 4th set.
The 5th set was also fierce, but the atmosphere began to decline as Korean Air scored 2 points with only the opponent’s room in a 7-7 tie. Korean Air reached the match point with Jung Ji-seok’s back attack and Lincoln’s blocking, and Lincoln put an end to the long match with a powerful serve ace.
Lincoln stepped up as a “solver” by scoring 21 points, the most in the team that day, including a whopping 7 points in the 5th set alone. In addition, Jeong Ji-seok added 19 points, Kwak Seung-seok 12 points, and Lim Dong-hyuk 11 points, and domestic players also performed well.
On the other hand, KEPCO struggled with Thais holding on to a sore knee and posting 33 points, the most among both teams, but it was not enough to change the win or loss.
However, the expression of both teams on this day was different from the result of the game. Although Korean Air won, they could not laugh to their heart’s content. They had to break away from the strong pursuit of second place Hyundai Capital, but because they played a full set, they only got 2 points instead of 3 points. Korean Air’s victory point is 33, Hyundai Capital’s is 30. It is a situation where the ranking may change with a single head-to-head match.
In particular, the content of the game darkened the expression of coach Tommy Tilikhainen. A total of 29 crime rooms were poured. Lincoln sat on the bench and started the game with enthusiasm, but was soon driven into a crisis and eventually managed to win thanks to Lincoln’s input. 안전놀이터
After the game, coach Tillikainen expressed regret, saying, “Today’s game was not our usual quality,” and “I want to show a better quality in the next game.”
Unlike this, KEPCO is mired in four consecutive losses, but gained confidence by fighting closely against the leading Korean Air. In addition, by winning 1 victory point, not empty-handed, there was also an achievement that surpassed Woori Card and rose to 4th place. Attention is focusing on how the match on this day will change the steps of both teams.