The Korean Air Jumbos have finally regained the top spot in the men’s professional volleyball league. It’s been 74 days since Nov. 29 last year.
Korean Air defeated visiting KEPCO 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-17) in straight sets in the fifth round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League Men’s Division at Suwon Indoor Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, on Nov. 11.
With the win, Korean Air, which has won three straight matches, moved into first place with 17 wins and 11 losses (53 points), ahead of Woori Card (18 wins and 9 losses – 52 points). KEPCO, which was looking to move into the top three with a late first-half surge, dropped its third straight match and remained in fifth place with 14 points (41).
Korean Air apo jit spiker Lim Dong-hyuk led both teams to the shutout victory with a game-high 22 points. The team’s offensive success rate of 64.52 percent was steady throughout the three sets. Jung Sung-seok and Kim Min-jae each added eight kills to support Lim.
The team had a huge 14-to-6 advantage in blocks and a dominant 51.43 percent to 35.8 percent attack success rate. KEPCO’s Tys Dul Host scored a team-high 12 points, but his performance was the difference in the loss.
Korean Air dominated the first set. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Han’s serve, and KEPCO was unable to tie the game due to a series of errors. Korean Air middle blocker Kim Min-jae’s presence shone in each tiebreaker. She scored on a fast break for a 13-12 lead and then scored again on a fast break for a 14-13 lead. Unable to keep up with the score at this point, KEPCO surrendered the first 20 points of the set to Lim Dong-hyuk on an open kill and Murad on a quick open to lose the first set.
Korean Air’s dominance continued in the second set. In an early tie, Korean Air took the lead with a quick open from Lim Dong-hyuk and a blocked point from Jeong Jung-seok. A back-attack by Lim extended the lead to 20 points and a missed serve by Tice gave Korean Air the second set.
The third set followed a similar pattern. Korean Air controlled Gisun with blocking, as Jeong Ji-seok blocked Park Chul-woo’s open attack and Han Sun-soo blocked Lee Si-mon’s quick open. The score easily reached 20 points as Lim Dong-hyuk continued to score and Kim Gyu-min was a presence in the center before his substitution. KEPCO was unable to keep up with the score due to frequent serve errors, and eventually had to settle for three points on a back-attack by Jeong Ji-seok.
The V-League Women’s Division also saw a fierce mid-table battle. On the same day (Nov. 11), Jung Kwan-jang defeated Korea Road Corporation 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21) at home in the women’s V League Round 5 at Chungmu Gymnasium in Daejeon, South Korea.
With the win, fourth-ranked Jung Kwan-jang improved to 14 wins and 14 losses (44 points), extending its lead over fifth-ranked IBK (13 wins, 14 losses, 39 points) and closing in on third-ranked GS Caltex (16 wins, 11 losses, 45 points) by one point.
Jung’s trio of Jia, Mega, and Lee So-young combined for 61 points with 23, 22, and 16 points, respectively, to dominate the Korea Expressway Corporation court. Among them, Mega was the centerpiece with 22 points on 54.05% offensive success rate. Despite being outblocked 6 to 13, the trio had more firepower with an even offensive share. Vukiric led both teams with 32 points, but Korea Express had to settle for a second straight loss due to a lack of focus in close games.