Korean Air defeats OK Finance in V-League men’s game under first foreign coach

Korean Air head coach Tommi Tilikainen earned the honor of being the first foreign head coach to win a regular season men’s match in the Korean Professional Volleyball V League.

Korean Air defeated OK Financial Group in straight sets, 3-0, in a men’s home match of the Korean Professional Volleyball Dodram 2023-2024 V-League at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon, South Korea today (July 7).

OK Financial Group 바카라사이트 is led by head coach Massa Ogino.

Tilikainen and Ogino first met in the Group A qualifiers of the Gumi Professional Volleyball Cup last August, where Tilikainen’s Korean Air won in straight sets, 3-2.

It was Korean Air’s Tilikainen who won the first meeting in the regular season as well.

Korean Air, which is looking to win the overall title (1st place in the regular season and championship) for the fourth consecutive season, won three straight games to finish the first round with 13 points (4-2) and 3rd place.

First-round winners Samsung Fire and Woori Card have 14 points, one more than Korean Air.

OK Financial Group (10-4-2), which was in third place before the game, failed to add any points and dropped to fourth place.

OK Financial Group played a safe volleyball with fewer mistakes.

Korean Air, on the other hand, played a relatively risky game, as their main player Jung Ji-seok was unable to play due to injury and their foreign attacker Lincoln Williams was not fully fit and played only a short time.

As OK Financial Group played a “safe serve,” Korean Air harassed OK Financial Group with steady receptions followed by fast attacks.

In addition, middle blocker Kim Gyu-min-in had six blocking points to keep OK Financial Group out of the way.

On the day, Korean Air outscored OK Financial Group 13 to 1 in blocking points and 4 to 2 in service aces.

Korean Air had four players in double figures, including young wing attackers Lim Dong-hyuk (18 points), Jeong Jung-yong (15 points) and Lee Jun (12 points) and middle blocker Cho Jae-young (14 points).

In the women’s match at Jangchung Gymnasium in Jung-gu, Seoul, GS Caltex fought back to win 3-2 after dropping the first and second sets.

GS Caltex finished the first round in second place with 13 points (5-1), two points behind first-place Heungkuk Life (15-5).

On the day, GS Caltex struggled early in the match, falling behind 0-9 in the first set.

After dropping sets 1 and 2, GS Caltex took sets 3 and 4 to push the match to the final five sets.

At 6-5 in the fifth set, GS Caltex scored on an open attack by Kwon Min-ji, shook the opponent’s receiving line with Han Soo-jin’s serve, and then scored on an open attack by Kang So-hwi to go up 8-5.

Moon Ji-yoon then blocked a follow-up attack from Roadworks’ main gun Vanya Vukiric (registered name Vukiric) to further widen the gap to 9-5.

Trailing 12-11 after a counterattack by Roadworks, GS Caltex got a breather with a staggered attack from Kwon Min-ji and ended the match with back-to-back service aces from Kim Min-ji.

On the day, Vukiric scored a team-high 36 points, added four service aces, three blocking points, and three digs to complete the women’s team’s first triple crown (at least three each of service, blocking, and digs) this season, but her efforts were overshadowed by her team’s loss.