The South Korean women's volleyball team defeated Thailand 3-1 in the 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on Sunday, ending a losing streak at 30 in the annual tournament.
The VNL is an international competition with 16 countries participating in multiple locations around the world.
In the match held in Brazil on Sunday, South Korea stepped up its attack from the beginning and won the first set 25-19. Thailand took the second set 25-23, but South Korea came back and took the third set 25-16 and the fourth 25-17, winning the final score 3-1 and ending their third year in the VNL. He achieved his first victory.
South Korea's last win in this tournament was against Canada in June 2021. They lost three consecutive tournaments after that, lost all 24 in the 2022 and 2023 tournaments, and suffered three more losses this year to China, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic.
Sunday's victory was South Korea's first under new head coach Fernando Morales, who took over in March after former head coach Cesar Hernandez, who finished fifth at the Hangzhou Asian Games last fall, was fired last October. I won.
Korea showed great improvement as four players scored double-digit points for the first time in the match against Thailand.
Kang So-hui was the top scorer with 22 points, Park Jeong-ah and Jeon Ji-yoon each scored 16 points, and Lee Joo-ah scored 11 points.
In the past two games, Korea had only one player who scored double-digit points. Kang Soon scored 11 points in the match against China on May 14th, and Jeong Soon scored 12 points in the match against the Dominican Republic on Saturday. In the 3-0 loss to Brazil on May 16, not a single player scored in double digits.
With one win under their belt, South Korea will head to the United States for the second week of the 2024 VNL tour, which will run from May 28th to June 2nd.
Coach Morales' team will next face Bulgaria on May 29th.
Text: Baek Ji-hwan [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]