Pepper Savings Bank women’s professional volleyball setter Park Sawa (20) will lead the way in the team’s return match against Heungkuk Life.
“Park will start today,” said Pepper Savings Bank head coach Cho Trinzi ahead of the match at Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon on Friday.
This is the first time this season that Park has been named in the starting lineup.
She was selected as the starting setter for the rematch four days after coming on as a substitute in the home match against Heungkuk Life on April 1 and spearheading a sharp attack.
Taking the court from the end of the first set, Park successfully converted 52 out of 135 set points to lead the team to a five-set victory.
Pepper Savings Bank’s attacking efficiency was -2.86% in the first set, but increased to 37.93% in the second set. However, Pepper Savings Bank lost the match.
Coach Trinzi praised Park as “a player with good athleticism and good toss work” and said, “She is still inexperienced, so we will teach her how to run the game and lead the team.”
“We improved (in the second round) compared to the first round,” said Trinzi, whose team finished with a 2-10 record. “We are going in the right direction, so hopefully we can prove it with results in the third round.”
Meanwhile, Heungkuk Life head coach Marcello Abondanza was coy about his starting setter, saying, “I’m going to wait until the warm-up (before the match) to decide.”
Abondanza’s team has won eight straight games to top the league (30-11-1), but remains wary of second-place Hyundai E&C (29-9-4).
“We’re on a winning streak, so I can’t blame the players, but we’ll have to manage our points well because the gap is small,” he said. 토토