Men’s professional volleyball team Woori Card saw its winning streak end at three games.
Woori Card fell 2-3 (24-26 22-25 25-20 25-23 13-15) in a close full-set match against Samsung Fire in the third round of the Dodram 2023-24 V-League Men’s Division at Jangchung Gymnasium 바카라사이트 in Seoul on Wednesday.
After dropping the first and second sets, they showed a lot of focus to push the match to the final five sets, but couldn’t pull off the upset and shook their heads.
Despite ending their three-game winning streak, the Woori Card remained atop the standings with 31 points (11-4). They are six points behind second-place Samsung Fire (25).
Coach Shin Young-cheol embraced his players despite the loss, saying, “I’m grateful that the players didn’t give up until the end.”
Losing the first set with a 24-19 lead was painful. Samsung Fire‘s Yosvani Hernandez (registered name Yosvani) had a shaky reception, and the team lost the next seven points.
Coach Shin often made substitutions, putting libero Kim Young-jun in place of Kim Ji-han to bolster reception when a player with a strong serve was available.
On this day, however, he was unable to use all of his substitutions as he used Otake Issei (registered name Issei) as a one-point blocker in place of setter Han Tae-joon to reinforce his height at 24-19.
Recalling the situation, Shin said, “It was painful to use Song Myung-geun as a one-point server in the first set because we had a big lead. I should have kept the substitutions until the end,” he said, adding, “It’s my fault as a coach.”