Hyundai E&C, last season’s professional volleyball V League champion, has won a hard-fought victory over Pepper Savings Bank, which has been at the bottom of the V League for three consecutive seasons.
Hyundai E&C won the first match of the women’s group A of the 2024 Tongyeong-Dodram Cup Professional Volleyball Tournament against Pepper Savings Bank 3-2 (22-25 25-23 27-25 22-25 15-11) in a tightly contested full-set match at the Tongyeong Gymnasium in Gyeongnam on Monday.
Hyundai E&C struggled from the first set.
Pepper Savings Bank showed a height advantage with Barbara Zavic (registered name Zavic – 191 centimeters), the No. 1 foreign player draft pick, and Jang Yu (196 centimeters), the No. 1 Asian Quarter Tryout pick.
Hyundai E&C fielded the best middle blocker lineup in Korea, including Yang Hyo-jin and Lee Da-hyun, but they were unable to match Pepper Savings Bank’s height.
Hyundai E&C dropped five blocks in the first set alone.
Hyundai E&C changed its game plan. In the second set, they focused on the side attack by increasing the offensive share of foreign player Leticia Moma Basoko (real name Moma).
Moma was responsible for 11 of the team’s 16 points in the second set.
With the set score tied 1-1, HCE brought the third set to a deuce tiebreaker.
At 25-25, Moma calmly pulled off a late attack, and then Yang Hyo-jin converted an open attack to end the set.
Hyundai E&C was unable to overcome the aftermath of Moma’s declining stamina and dropped the fourth set, but the team stayed organized to take the fifth set and win the match.
At 9-8, veteran Yang Hyo-jin scored back-to-back kills and open attacks to widen the gap.
Pepper Savings Bank libero Handa Hye made an error when she failed to receive the ball to make it 12-8.
At 12-10, Moma’s attack and a block by Jung Jeong-yoon sealed the victory with two more points.
Moma led the team’s offense with 34 points on the night, while Yang Hyo-jin and Wipawi Sithong (real name Wipawi) contributed 13 points each.
Pepper Savings Bank’s Park Jung-ah had 27 points, Zabich had 20 points and Zhang Yu had 14 points, but the team was unable to smile in the loss.
Zhang Yu had six blocks on the night, the most for either team.
New head coach Jang Ji-yeon of Pepper Savings Bank will have to wait until the next match for his first win.
GS Caltex, led by new head coach Lee Young-taek, won their first match of Group A on the same day against Korea Expressway Corporation, 3-2 (25-19 23-25 22-25 25-19 15-13).
GS Caltex re-signed foreign player Giselle Silva (real name Silva) scored a team-high 39 points. She also completed the Triple Crown (at least three points each in serve, back-attack, and blocking).
Asian quarterback Stephanie Wyler (née Wyler) added to the excitement with six blocks.
Korea Express was led by Merelin Nikolova (née Nikolova) with a triple crown and 31 points, but couldn’t get over the final hump.
Kang So-hwi, who joined Korea Express from GS Caltex, scored 16 points against his hometown team, but his shooting percentage (36.59 percent) fell short of expectations. 토토사이트 추천
