Kim Yeon-kyung (36, Heungkuk Life Insurance) predicted that even when the team continued its opening streak, "It is important to stay in the position until the end of the league," adding, "There will certainly be a crisis, and how to overcome that crisis will be the key to winning the integrated championship."
Heungkuk Life Insurance, a women's professional volleyball team that had won 14 consecutive games, the most in the club's history, is in crisis.
Even the leading Mercury cannot be guaranteed.
Heungkuk Life lost to the lowest-ranked GS Caltex with a set score of 2-3 in the women's visit match of Dodram 2024-2025 V-League at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on the 7th.
In the V-League, a set score of 3-0 or 3-1 is won, and if the V-League wins with 3-2 points, it will earn two points. The team that lost 2-3 will earn one point.
Heungkuk Life Insurance (44 points, 15 wins, 4 losses), which added only 1 point in the first game of the second half, was unable to escape the pursuit of second-place Hyundai Engineering & Construction (41, 13 wins, 5 losses).
Since Hyundai Engineering & Construction has played one less game, the gap between the three points seems to be narrower.
Heungkuk Life Insurance, which had accumulated 34 points (12 wins) by the second round and was seven points ahead of Hyundai Engineering & Construction (27 points at the time), only added nine points in the third round to finish the first half as "anxious No. 1."
At the end of the first half, the gap between Heungkuk Life Insurance (43 points) and Hyundai Engineering & Construction (41 points) was 2 points.
Heungkuk Life Insurance was caught by GS Caltex in the first game of the second half, making the women's lead fight hotter.
Heungkuk Life Insurance continued its lead in the 2020-2021 season, the first season when Kim Yeon-kyung returned, and allowed GS Caltex to turn the tables, finishing second in the regular league and losing the championship game.
In the 2022-2023 season, he won the regular league title, but knelt down to the Korea Expressway Corporation in the championship game.
During the last season (2023-2024), the team had a fierce battle with Hyundai Engineering & Construction to lose the top spot in the regular league by one point. The team lost to Hyundai Engineering & Construction in the championship game. 먹튀검증
Kim Yeon-koung and Heungkuk Life began this season with a desire to win the combined championship and staged a winning streak that exceeded expectations earlier in the season.
However, Heungkuk Life's power dropped sharply as Tutku bourgeois Yuzgenk (registered name Tutku), who had been dividing the attack with Kim Yeon-kyung, left on December 17 last year due to a ruptured left knee tendon.
Other players are suffering from large and small injuries.
"We focused on 'recovery' during the All-Star break," Heungkuk Life Insurance coach Marcello Avonjada said after the loss to GS Caltex on Sunday. "Setter Lee Go-eun had to go to the hospital on Wednesday to fail team training, and middle blocker Anilis Peach was excluded from the training list for about three days for treatment. Kim Soo-ji played in the match with GS Caltex only briefly due to gall symptoms."
Marta Matteiko, who was temporarily hired as a substitute foreign player to fill Tutku's vacancy, scored only three points in his V-League debut.
Manager Avon Danza said, "Matteiko needs time to adapt to the new league."
If Matteiko struggles to adapt to the V-League, the crisis of Heungkuk Life could be longer.
The "recovery" of domestic players is also the key to escaping the crisis.