Korean Women’s Volleyball Team Broke The Great Wall

To Italian Peninsula, passing over the Great Wall…

Korean women’s volleyball team beat China, the number one Asian team, and advanced to the quarterfinal of the World Women’s Volleyball Championship, taking on Italy for the advancement to the semifinal. Previously, our team even beat the world’s strongest team, Cuba, on its way up.

On September 9, in the third round of F group, 2nd league, in Germany, Korea beat China, the team that won the World Grand Championship last year, in 68 minutes, 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-23). Previous day, Korean team got a surprise attack from Bulgaria and lost a game. Thus, Korea ranked jointly with China, Bulgaria with the same record of 2 wins and 1 loss. But Korea beat other teams in terms of win-loss set ratio, and advanced to the semifinal as the fist place winner in the group. China also advanced following Korea.

It is the first advance to the quarterfinal of the World Championship in 8 years. In 1994, Korea ranked 4th in the championship. The best performance Korean team has ever shown was winning the third place in ’67 Championship in Japan and ’74 in Brazil.

Beating China also came at a long interval. In August of 2000, Korea beat China 3-2, and in 1998 3-2 in this World Championship. By winning over China, Korean team has regained the confidence and is now aiming at the champion title in the Asian Games.

On September 12, Korea will take on Italy for the semifinal. Italy has been a little down due to the losing streak against Russia and Cuba, the two best candidates for this year’s champion title. Some predict that Korean team’s winning spirit would lead it to the victory.

Against China, Korea waged an all-out offensive from the beginning. Korea had to win two sets in order to advance to the quarterfinal. China has thwarted Korea’s advance championship after championship including the Asian Games.

Korea utilized the fast tossing by its setter Kang Hae-mi. Based on the tossing, Choi Kwang-hee (14 points) and Jang So-yon (9 points) waged a moving attack and turned the game for Korea. By the middle of the first set, China was leading the game 13-15. Due to the errors of Chinese players, Korea tied the set 18-18. Then, Choi’s attacks led to scores. In the second set, Jung Sun-hae (7 points), who was substituted for Goo Min-jung (6 points), smashed two strong spikes onto the floor and snatched the victory for Korea. In the third set, Korea was about to lose its lead of 19-21, but Jung and Choi’s vigorous attacks sealed the game off for Korea.

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com