Korean Air Men’s Professional Volleyball snapped KEPCO’s eight-game winning streak and snapped a three-game losing streak.
Korean Air came from behind to defeat KEPCO in straight sets 3-1 (16-25 25-23 25-14 25-23) in the men’s Dodram 2023-2024 V League at Suwon Gymnasium in Gyeonggi-do, Gyeonggi-do, on Wednesday.
With 28 points (9-6), Korean Air moved ahead of Samsung Fire (25-10) for second place in the league.
Korean Air’s turnaround card was Espejo Mark (real name Espejo).
In her second start in the V-League, Espejo poured in 19 kills (55.56% attack percentage), including four service aces.
KEPCO (24-8, 7-7) missed a chance to end their winning streak at ‘7’ and move up two spots in the standings in one fell swoop.
KEPCO took the first set.
They jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead after Lim Sung-jin scored the first point on a quick opener and Shin Young-seok intercepted Korean Air’s Kim Min-jae’s fastball.
After cutting the deficit to one point with an over-net, Tais Dul Host (registered name Tais) converted a quick opener and then blocked a back attack from Korean Air’s Lim Dong-hyuk.
With a 7-1 lead, Korean Air’s trio of Taith, Seo Jae-duk and Lim Sung-jin never looked back and closed out the first set with just over 23 minutes to play.
Korean Air fought back in the second set, led by their “homegrown gun” Lim Dong-hyuk, who came alive with nine points.
Espejo’s presence shone late in the set.
After a quick opener by Lim Dong-hyuk gave Korean Air a 23-22 lead, Espejo’s decisive service ace saved set point.
At 24-23, Espejo secured the final point with a back attack.
Espejo’s serve remained powerful in the third set.
At 2-1, Korean Air took control of the serve with a kill by Cho Jae-young and went on a 10-1 run with two service aces from Espejo.
With the momentum in their favor, Korean Air closed out the third set 25-14 to bounce back from the first set loss.
In the fourth set, Korean Air jumped out to a 5-0 lead on a back attack by Lim Dong-hyuk and a service ace by Han, along with three KEPCO errors.
KEPCO didn’t stop there.
At 10-13, KEPCO scored two easy points on a service error by Espejo and a line over by Lim Dong-hyuk, then tied the game with a service ace by Tice.
From there, it was a one-point game.
At 23-23, Kim Gyu-min neatly blocked Seo Jae-duk’s back attack and Lim Dong-hyuk ended the bloodbath with a powerful back attack.
For Korean Air, Lim Dong-hyuk (23 points) was the top scorer, with Espejo (19 points) and Kwak Seung-seok (11 points) also contributing.
For KEPCO, Tice (23 points), Lim Sung-jin (14 points) and Seo Jae-duk (11 points) were in double figures, but couldn’t prevent their team from losing.
In the women’s match at the Chungmu Gymnasium in Daejeon, Jeong Kwan-jang defeated Korea Expressway Corporation in straight sets, 3-0 (27-25 25-21 25-18).
With their second straight win, Kwanjang moved into fourth place in the league with 23 points (7 wins and 8 losses), ahead of IBK (22-8, 7 wins).
Despite committing 23 errors, Jeong Kwan-jang won with the firepower of Giovanna Milana (registered name Gia – 22 points) and Megawatti Puttiwi (registered name Mega – 17 points).
Defending champions Korea Expressway Corporation have been unable to climb out of the bottom half of the standings (6th) as they have lost six straight games. 파워볼