Korean women's volleyball heads back to VNL after losing all games in 2 years

Korea's first 2024 VNL game against China on Tuesday will be new head coach Fernando Morales's first game in charge.

Korean women's volleyball team head coach Fernando Morales, center, instructs his players during a training session at the Jungang Girl’s High School gymnasium in western Seoul on May 1. [NEWS1]

The Korean women’s volleyball team led by new head coach Fernando Morales starts their 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) journey in Brazil on Tuesday after two years of failure in the annual tournament during which they lost all 24 games.

In the VNL, which began in 2018, 16 countries compete across multiple locations around the world.

Korea has suffered disappointing results in the past two years, losing all 12 games in 2022 and repeating that last year.

Korea's opener against China on Tuesday will be Morales’s first game in charge. He took the helm in March after former head coach Cesar Hernandez was fired in October last year.

During Hernandez's nearly two-year spell, the team not only lost all 24 VNL games but lost seven Paris Olympic qualifiers and finished in fifth place at the Asian Games last year.

Morales called up regular picks like outside hitters Kang So-hwi of Gimcheon Korea Expressway Hi-Pass and Jeong Ji-yun of Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate in addition to 21-year-old middle blocker Choi Jeong-min of the Hwaseong IBK Altos.

Kang joins the national team on the back of a solid performance from the 2023-24 V League during which she scored 444 points. National team captain Park Jeong-ah of the Gwangju Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers will also be in action alongside Kang after recording 468 points in the league.

During a training session earlier this month, Morales focused on speed and diversifying attack patterns, which the team lacked during the 2023 VNL.

The national team’s attack has waned since ace Kim Yeon-koung retired from national duty after the Tokyo Olympics, where Korea reached the semifinals, in 2021.

Bringing back the old glory of the national team in this year’s VNL would elevate Korea’s FIVB rankings, which plummeted from 14th in 2021 to 40th as of Monday.

Korea will play No. 6 China in their first game on Tuesday. The two sides’ most recent head-to-head clash ended with a 3-0 loss for Korea at the Hangzhou Asian Games last fall.

Following the first game, Korea will take on No. 3 Brazil on Thursday, before facing No. 8 Dominican Republic on May 18 and No. 13 Thailand on May 19.

The Thailand game will wrap up the first week of the 2024 VNL schedule, with Korea flying to the United States for the second week running from May 28 to June 2 and heading to Japan for the third week from June 11 to 16.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]