On the 28th, the season’s final confrontation with the 4th place Highway Corporation for 3rd place in the regular league
Women’s ‘7th team’ Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers, who recorded 3 wins and 28 losses in 31 matches last season, when they participated in the V-League for the first time has 4 wins and 27 losses in 31 games this season. Compared to last season, only 1 win has increased, but considering that 3 out of 4 wins were posted after the 4th round, the performance of Pepper Savings Bank in the second half of this season cannot be ignored (and Pepper Savings Bank is This is a team that started the season with 17 consecutive losses).
Pepper Savings Bank is gaining momentum by defeating Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate, which was leading the way on the 10th, 3-2 after a full set match. However, Pepper Savings Bank also failed to win a single match against KGC Ginseng Corporation in 11 total confrontations since last season. Since its establishment, Pepper Savings Bank has only won 1 point while dedicating 32 points to Ginseng Corporation. Since all six head-to-head matches have ended this season, we have to wait until next season to take revenge on Ginseng Corporation.
Like this, they did not allow a single defeat against Pepper Savings Bank, and there is a team that has never won a victory this season even in the rising Ginseng Corporation, which has recently reached 3rd place with 5 consecutive wins. It is the 4th place Korea Expressway Corporation High Pass, which is in a fierce competition for 3rd place with a difference of 1 point. On the 28th, Ginseng Corporation, who had lost 5 matches to the Korea Expressway Corporation until the 5th round, will have a very important regular league final confrontation with the Korea Expressway Corporation on the 28th, with the 3rd place shooter, spring volleyball advancement, and semi-playoff success.
Failed to advance to spring volleyball in the last 5 consecutive seasons
In the 2016-2017 season, when Alena Bergsma, the “good fortune”, made a sensation by reaching the top scorer (854 points), Ginseng Corporation, which advanced to the playoffs in 3rd place in the regular league, never advanced to spring volleyball for the next four seasons. In particular, in the 2018-2019 season, when even Alena struggled with injuries, she suffered 19 consecutive losses in the season and fell to the bottom. This remains the record for most consecutive losses in a single season, which has not been broken to this day.
The Ginseng Corporation nominated good prospects every season, such as Park Eun-jin, Jeong Ho-young, and Lee Seon-woo, and even with top-notch foreign players such as Alena, Valentina Diouf (Busto Arsicio), the results did not rise. In the end, for good results, it was necessary to foster and grow promising players, have an eye for good foreign players, and balance proper investment. Accordingly, in April 2021, Ginseng Corporation invested a huge amount of 650 million won in total annual salary over a three-year contract period to recruit Lee So-young, the largest FA fish.
In the process of recruiting Lee So-young, Ginseng Corp., Oh Ji-young libero (Pepper Savings Bank) left the team as a compensation player. However, Ginseng Corporation has built a solid power with league-top outside hitter Lee So-young, national setter Yeom Hye-seon, and middle blockers Park Eun-jin and Jeong Ho-young, who will lead the future of Korean women’s volleyball. In addition, the skill of Yelena Mrazenovich (Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders), a 196 cm tall striker who was recruited as the third overall in the foreign player draft, was also beyond expectations.
However, Ginseng Corporation stayed in 4th place in the regular league, falling short of the 50% win rate with 15 wins and 17 losses (46 points) in 32 games in the 2021-2022 season. Although all teams failed to play the postseason as the season ended early due to an increase in the number of corona19 confirmed at the end of the season, at the end of the season, the difference between GS Caltex KIXX (62 points) and Ginseng Corporation in 3rd place was a whopping 16 points. If the season had been held normally, advancing to spring volleyball would have been impossible.
Ginseng Corporation struggled with Yelena coming in 5th in scoring (672 points) and attack success rate (39.44%), but Lee So-young’s performance in karate was somewhat disappointing, and Park Eun-jin, who participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, also slowed down. In the end, Ginseng Corporation became the first team in the V-League women’s division to fail to advance to spring volleyball for five consecutive seasons. Director Lee Young-taek (Palembang Soomsel Babel Bank), who led Ginseng Corporation from December 2019, and foreign player Yelena ended up failing to renew the contract.
Battle against the ‘nemesis’ for the 3rd place
After the season, Ginseng Corporation, which appointed coach Heejin Koh, who led the men’s team Samsung Fire & Marine Bluefangs in Daejeon, took over as captain of the 2020-2021 GS Caltex combined championship season and the highest-paid player in the team, Lee So-young. In the foreign player draft, Elisabeth Ine Barga, an apogee spiker with excellent athletic ability who played an active role at Pepper Savings Bank last season, was selected as the second overall pick. Above all, the will of the players to shake off the disappointment of last season was great. 스포츠토토
However, apart from the high motivation of the players, Ginseng Corp., where the yellow libero left due to injury, did not rise to the upper middle ranks with 11 wins and 15 losses in 26 games after the season opened. Elisabeth ran to the top in scoring from the beginning of the season, and Lee So-young, who added responsibility as a captain, also played a big role in the offense and defense, but seldom showed competitiveness in the middle ranks. In this way, a surprising reversal occurred in the middle of the last 5 rounds for Ginseng Corporation, which seemed close to being eliminated from spring volleyball for 6 consecutive seasons.
Starting with IBK Industrial Bank Altos on the 8th, Ginseng Corp. won all of the consecutive matches against GS Caltex, Hyundai E&C, and Pepper Savings Bank, and ran a 5-game winning streak. And in the last 4 games, it has risen to 3rd place alone, overtaking the road construction, which has been stagnant with 1 win and 3 losses. The players leading the attack are still Elisabeth and Lee So-young, but during the winning streak, all the players played their role on and off the court to the extent that it is difficult to pick one or two distinguished players.
Now, on the last day of February, Ginseng Corporation faces the ‘natural enemy’ Road Corporation, which has never won this season, on the way to a six-game winning streak. If this game is won, Ginseng Corporation can widen the gap with the 4th place road corporation to 4 points and solidify its 3rd place. In addition, it can make a difference in points that the semi-playoffs do not open. Conversely, if Ginseng Corporation gives up this game, the 5-game winning streak stops along with the loss of the road construction battle, giving the road construction 3rd place in 4 days.
In soccer or volleyball, where 3 points are awarded in a game, when teams competing for rankings face each other, it is expressed as a ‘game worth 6 points’. For Ginseng Corporation, the final confrontation with the Korea Expressway Corporation is a must-win in order not only to compete for rankings but also to overcome the ‘phobia of road construction’ that they have not been able to shake off throughout this season. In addition, the final confrontation between Ginseng Corporation and Expressway Corporation in the regular league is also a big match that volleyball fans should never miss at the end of the season.