The Korean women’s volleyball team was unable to save its last shred of pride in the end.
The Korea Women’s National Team, led by head coach Cesar Hernandez Gonzalez, fell to Kazakhstan 0-3 (24-26, 23-25, 23-25) in straight sets in the fifth and sixth place match at the 2023 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship on Saturday at Chatai Hall in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
Korea is ranked 29th in the world, ahead of Kazakhstan (ranked 39th), but the ranking was not reflected in the outcome of the match.
The Koreans were led by Lee Sun-woo (Jung Kwan-jang) with a team-high 17 kills, but ultimately failed to win a single set. The top scorer in the match was Kazakhstan’s Sana Anakulova with 20 points.
South Korea fought back from a 21-24 deficit in the first set to make it a 24-24 deuce, but Kang So-hwi’s attack went wide and South Korea went down 24-26. In the second set, the South Koreans were down 21-24, but Kang So-hwi’s attack brought them to 23-24, but this time they couldn’t even get a deuce, falling 23-25. The third set was more of the same.
It was a foregone conclusion. South Korea had made it to the quarterfinals after finishing second in Group C, losing to Vietnam, a team that had been labeled as ‘underdogs’ from the start of the tournament. In the quarterfinals, they lost to Thailand 0-3 and were unable to advance to the quarterfinals, heading into the best-of-five match. Korea defeated India to advance to the 5th-6th place match, but ultimately ended the tournament in 6th place. This is the lowest ranking for Korea in their history at the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship.
Korea fielded a 14-player squad at the tournament, including captain Park Jung-ah (Pepper Savings Bank), Lee Ju-ah (Heungkuk Life Insurance), Kim Da-in, Kim Yeon-yeon, Lee Da-hyun (Hyundai E&C), Park Eun-jin, Lee Sun-woo, Jeong Ho-young (Jung Kwan-jang), Kim Ji-won, Kwon Min-ji, Kang So-hui (GS Caltex), Moon Jung-won (Roadworks), Lee Han-bi (Pepper Savings Bank), and Pyo Seung-joo (IBK).
However, they were unable to fill the void left by Kim Yeon-kyung, Kim Soo-ji (Heungkuk Life) and Yang Hyo-jin (Hyundai E&C), who retired from the national team. Earlier in the day, the team was swept in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) for the second consecutive year, extending its losing streak to 27 tournaments.
Prior to this tournament, South Korea had always managed to reach at least the quarterfinals, starting with a runner-up finish in 1975, followed by third place in 1979, third place in 1983, third place in 1987, second place in 1989, third place in 1991, third place in 1993, second place in 1995, second place in 1997, second place in 1999, second place in 2001, third place in 2003, fourth place in 2005, fourth place in 2007, fourth place in 2009, fourth place in 2011, third place in 2013, second place in 2015, third place in 2017 and third place in 2019. However, in addition to the shock of failing to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in their history, they were also unable to avoid the humiliation of ending the tournament in sixth place behind Kazakhstan in the fifth and sixth place matches. 온라인카지노
Meanwhile, South Korea will begin qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on June 16. They will face the United States, Italy, Poland, Germany, Thailand, Colombia, and Slovenia in Group C of the qualifiers. At this point, they’re not even guaranteed a win. After the Olympic qualifiers, the team will begin preparations for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. After reaching the quarterfinals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, South Korea’s women’s volleyball team has fallen off a cliff in just two years.