Kim Yeon-koung chosen MVP of Professional Volleyball V League

Kim Yeon-koung has been named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the first round of the 2024-2025 Korean Professional Volleyball V League after leading Heungkuk Life Insurance to an undefeated first round (6 wins). She received 22 of 31 votes in the journalists' poll. Outside hitter Kim Yeon-kyung earned her 12th individual first-round MVP honor, including three monthly MVP awards.

Thanks to Kim's stellar performance, Heungkuk Life is leading the way with 17 points by winning all six games in the first round, which ended Tuesday. They have overtaken Hyundai E&C (14 points), which was considered the ‘the most favorite’ before the season began, in second place.

Kim has shown outstanding performances in both offensive and defensive this season. Even in the mid-30s, she has surpassed her career record (45.05 percent) in attack success rate. She has scored 118 points (8th overall), the most of any Korean player. She also ranks second in receiving efficiency at 42.86 percent. She has a better-receiving percentage than the libero of each team's defense specialist except GS Caltex's Han Soo-jin (44.55 percent). Thus, she is showing top-level performance in both offense and defense in the league.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com