Heungkuk Life has regained the lead by losing Pepper Savings Bank to 23 consecutive games at home.

Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders, led by coach Marcello Avon terminal, won a set score 3-1 (25-14, 22-25, 25-16, 25-15) in a home game against Pepper Savings Bank AI Pepper in the fifth round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League at Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon on the 20th. Heungkuk Life Insurance, which has 67 points by winning all six games in the fifth round, took the lead in 67 days (24 wins and 6 losses) by outpacing Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate, which has the same points.  토토사이트 추천

Reina Tokoku scored 23 points with a 42.86 percent success rate, while Willow Johnson, who returned to the court as a substitute in the second set, also scored 12 points with a 45.83 percent success rate, while Kim Yeon-koung scored 18 points with a 40.54 percent success rate. Kim Da-sol setter, who started the game, scored seven points, including five serve points. Heungkuk Life Insurance, which regained its lead for the first time in 67 days since Dec. 15 last year, will be able to seek the regular league title for the second consecutive season through the sixth round.

Founded in 1971, Heungkuk Life Insurance had never won a championship or a runner-up in the winter league before the V League was launched. However, since the launch of professional volleyball in 2005, Heungkuk Life Insurance has received warm spring. Kim Yeon-koung, one of the best rookie players in the history of the 2005-2006 season, joined the team through the rookie draft. In fact, since the launch of the V League, Heungkuk Life's performance has been largely divided by the presence or absence of Kim Yeon-koung.

While Heungkuk Life spent 19 seasons in the V-League, Kim Yeon-koung played in only six seasons. Kim Yeon-koung had 12 years of experience in Korean women's volleyball, playing in overseas leagues such as Japan, Turkiye, and China. However, she won three championships and won three runner-up medals in six seasons while wearing the Heungkuk Life uniform. This means that Heungkuk Life's worst performance with Kim Yeon-koung was the runner-up at the championship.

Last season, Heungkuk Life was also called a strong contender as Kim Yeon-kyung, who played in the Chinese league for one season, returned and selected 196-centimeter-tall Yelena Mrazenovic as a new foreign player. Heungkuk Life Insurance, which had been in second place until the middle of the season due to Hyundai Engineering & Construction's 15th consecutive win, rose to the front at a time when Hyundai Engineering & Construction was shaken by the rise of Yasmin Bedardt (Pepper Savings Bank). It also beat Altos of IBK Industrial Bank to win the regular league title on March 15 last year.

Heungkuk Life Insurance was full of confidence even ahead of the championship match. Not only was it the most dominant among the three teams that advanced to the spring volleyball tournament in terms of objective performance, but Hyundai Engineering & Construction, ranking second in the regular league, was eliminated in the playoffs after losing consecutive games to Korea Expressway Corporation, ranking third. Heungkuk Life Insurance had a clear advantage in its regular league showdown with Korea Expressway Corporation with five wins and one loss last season, and thus seemed to have won its fifth championship in the championship match.

When Heungkuk Life won both matches of the championship match at home, few volleyball fans doubted Heungkuk Life's victory. However, Heungkuk Life lost both the third and fourth matches in Gumi, the home ground of the Korea Expressway Corporation, and lost the final match, Game 5 with a set score of 2-3, becoming the victim of the first "reverse sweep" in the V League. Heungkuk Life performed so well that all sets in Game 5 were two-point games, but few volleyball fans remembered this.

After the end of the last season, Heungkuk Life Insurance's "Empress" Kim Yeon-koung, who accounts for half of the team's performance, or maybe more, was qualified as an FA. Kim Yeon-koung had agonized between retiring from active duty, staying in Heungkuk Life Insurance, and transferring to other teams, and signed a contract with Heungkuk Life Insurance on the condition of a one-year contract period of 775 million won. Heungkuk Life Insurance, which had put its life and death on Kim Yeon-koung's staying, solved its biggest homework and completed the condition to try again to win the Championship, which was not achieved last season.

Heungkuk Life Insurance Co., which renewed its contract with foreign player Yelena and named Japanese player Raina in the Asian quarter, took the lead with 11 wins and one loss through the second round. However, foreign player Yelena began to falter from the third round, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., which had a nine-game winning streak by banking on its new foreign player Letizia Moma Vasoko and former member of the Thai national team Wipawi Cetong, gave up the lead. This is the exact opposite situation from last season, when it lost its lead while running second place.

However, Heungkuk Life Insurance replaced its foreign player from Yelena to Willow as soon as the first half ended, and made a surprising turnaround with the start of the fifth round. Willow quickly adapted to Heungkuk Life in a short time, forming a triangle formation with Kim Yeon-kyung and Raina. Heungkuk Life threatened the leader Hyundai E&C's position with a five-game winning streak in the fifth round. In particular, on the 12th, with a 3-0 victory over Hyundai E&C, it avenged its losses in the third and fourth rounds and gained the upper hand with 3 wins and 2 losses in the opponent team.

Heungkuk Life Insurance, which failed to take the lead in a full-set battle against Industrial Bank of Korea on the 15th, met Pepper Savings Bank, the lowest-ranked team, which has been mired in 22 consecutive losses, as the last opponent in the fifth round. Heungkuk Life struggled to escape the losing streak, losing the second set 22-25 to Pepper Savings Bank, which did its best. However, head coach Avon Danja threw a match to put Willow, a foreign player who had a bad knee, from the second half and accumulated three points by winning the third and fourth sets without a major crisis.

Heungkuk Life Insurance, which tied with Hyundai Engineering & Construction with 67 points, has taken the lead with 24 wins, ahead of Hyundai Engineering & Construction (22 wins), but it is still hard to say that it is a clear lead. While Heungkuk Life Insurance has completed all five rounds, Hyundai Engineering & Construction has the last match of the fifth round against the Industrial Bank of Korea on the 22nd. Therefore, the real match between this season's regular league championship and the direct team at the championship match is likely to be the last match between Heungkuk Life Insurance and Hyundai Engineering & Construction scheduled for March 12.