Professional men’s volleyball team KB Insurance has signed Korea’s top outside hitter Na Kyung-bok (29), who became a free agent (FA) from Woori Card after the 2022-2023 season. He was scheduled to enlist in the Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Commerce) and will not return to the V-League until the 2024-2025 season, but KB Insurance showed its intentions to challenge for the top spot next season by signing Na Kyung-bok, who can serve as a homegrown ace. With their main setter Hwang Taek-ui (27) also joining the Merchant Marine, 토토사이트 KB Insurance’s weak 2023-2024 season was somewhat expected.
Still, it was much weaker than expected. KB Insurance lost to KEPCO 0-3 in straight sets in Suwon on February 2. It was their 12th loss in 12 games after a 3-2 victory over KEPCO in the team’s opening match on March 17. KB Insurance’s 12-game losing streak is the second longest in team history after the 2019-2020 season (12 straight losses).
The loss of Hwang Kyung-min, 27, who was expected to provide a homegrown ace in Na Kyung-bok’s absence, has been devastating. In Hwang’s absence, foreign player Andres Villena (pictured) has been responsible for nearly half of the team’s offense.
In 13 games, he has been responsible for 44.1% of the team’s offense. He’s second on the team in points (352) and seventh in attack success rate (51.09%), but the monotonous offense that relies solely on him doesn’t make it easy for opposing blockers to avoid him. In fact, she has been blocked 66 times. The next two players in blocking, Yosubani (Samsung Fire) and Matei (Woori Card), have 45, which is 21 fewer than Bijena. Teams that face KB Insurance know they can win if they can stop Bjorna, so they’ve been focusing on him.
Hwang Kyung-min’s return is still far off. “We can’t rule out the possibility of Hwang Kyung-min coming back after the third round,” said Hoo In-jung.
His replacement, fifth-year player Hong Sang-hyuk, is not good enough to be a starter in both offense (47.93% success rate) and reception (32.40% efficiency). Outside hitter Liu Hung-min (Chinese Taipei), who was brought in for the Asian quarterfinals, has a decent efficiency of 44.39%, but his attack success rate is too low at 40.85%. It’s hard to see any hope of breaking the losing streak. KB Insurance is looking forward to next fall when Na Kyung-bok and Hwang Taek-ui return at the same time, but this winter is too cold.