Yang Hyo-jin 35, the “bloc queen” of Hyundai Engineering & Construction in women’s professional volleyball, is considered one of the best middle blockers in history. When Hyundai E&C won the V League championship game, Yang always showed strong performance. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the living history of the club.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction beat Heungkuk Life Insurance 3-2 after a full-set battle in the third round of the 2023-2024 V-League Women’s Championship Game three wins out of five held in Incheon on the 1st. Hyundai Engineering & Construction, which won all 3-2 at home in Suwon on the 28th and 30th of last month, will have its third star on the uniform, winning all three games 3-2 after the 2010-2011 season and 2015-2016 season.
The biggest contributor to the victory was Moma Basoko, a “Cameroon Express” who scored 109 points alone in three games, but the decisive difference between Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Heungkuk Life Insurance was the middle blocker’s scoring ability. While all middle blockers, including Heungkuk Life’s Kim Soo-ji and Lee Ju-ah, had only 29 points combined in the three championship games, Hyundai Engineering & Construction scored 53 points, including 13 blocks, alone in three games. If Lee Da-hyun, Yang Hyo-jin’s “partner,” includes 27 points in three games, the gap widens further.
The middle blocker’s scoring ability was also determined by the ability of the setter position where Hyundai Engineering & Construction Kim Da-in, Heungkuk Life Lee Won-jung and Kim Da-sol faced off. Hyundai Engineering & Construction was responsible for scoring more than a certain part in the middle, so it was easier for both wing strikers to attack against the opponent’s blocking check, while Heungkuk Life had to always hit the ball with two and three blocks because it was so dependent on both wing strikers.
Due to this difference, Kim Yeon-koung, the “volleyball empress,” had no choice but to exert herself in the face of the opponent’s tight containment of blocking. Moreover, as Heungkuk Life Insurance played three playoff games, Kim, Willow, and Raina were even more physically depleted. Even the best of the world, Kim Yeon-koung, failed to properly attack from the fourth set of the third match. Heungkuk Life Insurance, which had been leading 2-1 until the third set of the third match, lost four or five sets due to its defeat in the struggle for physical strength.
Yang Hyo-jin, who won a complete victory against his opponent’s middle blockers alone, said, “It’s been a long time since I won the championship,” adding, “I remember being unlucky because the postseason was not even held when I had a chance to win due to COVID-19.”
During the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 seasons, when Hyundai Engineering & Construction was overwhelmingly strong in the league and ranked first in the regular league, the postseason was not held due to COVID-19. This season, nobody picked Hyundai Engineering & Construction as the favorite, but it achieved a great achievement. Yang Hyo-jin also looked back on the season, saying, “We didn’t mention us as the favorite, so we emptied our minds and started. I played the game with joy because I could play volleyball with my current teammates without being greedy until the end, and the win came along.”
Yang Hyo-jin, who fought in full sets in both the first and third games, confessed that the third game, in which he won by a comfortable 15-7, was more difficult than the first and second games, where the winner and loser were determined by just two points. “I think it was more difficult because I thought that if I lose in the third game, I would have a bigger impact. The secret of winning the championship is that I played with the thought of no one behind me,” he said. 토토사이트 순위