“Our guys played hard. I think it wasn’t enough.”
IBK head coach Kim Ho-cheol reflected on the hard-fought loss.
IBK lost the Dodram V League 6th Round match against Heungkuk Life Insurance in three sets to one at Hwaseong Gymnasium on Friday.
After the match, coach Kim Ho-cheol said, “I think we played too long, it felt like five sets. It was hard for me too,” he sighed.
“I should have focused more on the match, but I didn’t,” he said. We got better from the second set.” “After all, Heungkuk Life has a lot of good players. It wasn’t enough for us, but it was good that our players played hard,” he reflected.
However, “I didn’t like it 100%. Once you’re focused, you have to keep going,” he said, adding, “Even though (Kim) Ha-kyung came in instead of Ponpun, Heungkuk is a team with high blocking and good defense, but the attack success rate was too low.”
On the day, IBK setter Kim Ha-kyung utilized Abercrombie to her advantage. Her 35-point effort was the centerpiece of the day. Coach Kim Ho-cheol said, “We looked a little awkward after not playing. If we get in sync, we can do as well as we did last year,” Kim emphasized. However, he said of Choi Jung-min and Lim Hye-rim’s middle blockers, “I want them to do better than now. We were just blocking without attacking, so that’s part of it, and part of it is that the opponent’s serve was so good.”
There were many long rallies in this match. At the end of the fourth set, there were as many as 24 games (including serves and blocks). But in the end, Kim won the point.
Coach Kim Ho-cheol said, “That’s when you score points. Today, (Kim) Yeon-kyung scored in 토토 the end. Our players have to learn a lot. Volleyball is not just about strength. You have to improve your technique to be able to score points in such situations.”
The star of Heungkuk Life’s victory was Kim Yeon-kyung, who led the team with 36 points, compared to foreign player Willow’s 28 points.
But not every team can have Kim Yeon-kyung. Besides Abercrombie, KEB Hwang Min-kyung added 15 points, but the team lacked support from other domestic players like Choi Jung-min (5 points, 3 blocks) and Pyo Seung-ju (4 points). They also had to swallow the disappointment of support from owner Kim Sung-tae and actor Lee Ji-hoon.