IBK got its first win of the season.
IBK, coached by Kim Ho-cheol, won the Dodram 2023-24 V-League Women’s First Round match against Korea Expressway Corporation 3-2 (22-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-13) at Gimcheon Indoor Gymnasium on Monday. With the victory, IBK got its first win of the season after a three-game losing streak to open the campaign.
It looked like the team would fall into a four-game losing streak until they dropped the first and second sets, but the players came together to secure the reverse sweep. IBK leapfrogged from the bottom of the standings to sixth place.
Outside hitter Brittany Abercrombie (registered as Abercrombie) led the way with a team-high 34 points. Pyo Seung-ju added 16 points and Choi Jung-min had 11 points, including five blocks. Hwang Min-kyung and Kim Hyun-jung added eight points each.
In the post-match interview, Coach Kim Ho-cheol said, “It was an easy game to win, but I think we still don’t have enough faith in each other. We made mistakes at crucial moments. Also, I don’t think Ponpun knows Korean volleyball yet. We need to understand each other.”
In a pre-match interview, coach Kim Ho-cheol said, “You can’t think about the outcome of the match in advance. We should always do our best and be crazy. I told them to get into the rhythm of volleyball. When you make a mistake, you should also show your disappointment. I think our players will do a good job today,” he said. In Kim’s opinion, did IBK’s players play crazy that day?
“I told them that we lost the first and second sets because we didn’t play well. We should be more wet than our opponents. If someone else scores a point, we have to celebrate as if we scored the point. We’ve got two new guys, so we’re not really a team yet. We need to talk to each other a lot.”
Abecrombie, the No. 1 outside hitter, had a strong performance. She added power to her attack in every set and had only three unforced errors.
However, Kim Ho-cheol said, “Avery Crombie is doing everything he can, but I think he can do better than he is. He is a player with a mild personality. I want him to hit with power when he hits the deciding ball, and I want him to hit with power when he hits a lot of balls into the paint.” Kim smiled.
It took 161 minutes of hard work against defending champions Doro Corporation to get their first win of the season and two valuable points. Kim Ho-cheol was pleased with the performances of not only his starters but also the substitutes Koo Hye-in, Kim Jung-ah, Kim Ha-kyung, and Yuk Seo-young.
“All the players who came in today did a good job,” Kim said, “Now the players who worked hard in the offseason need to step up. I will think about what 메이저사이트 kind of volleyball they can play well, and I will do my best to make them feel confident and comfortable playing volleyball.”
IBK will try to make it two wins in a row next month when they play Pepper Savings Bank at Hwaseong Gyeonggi Town Indoor Gymnasium on March 1.