Korea ends Volleyball Nations League without a single win

Korea's disastrous run at the Volleyball Nations League came to an end on Sunday without a single win across the entire tournament, marking Korea's worst outing ever at the event.

From left: Kang So-hwi, Lee Da-hyeon and Park Jeong-ah react during a Volleyball Nations League match against China on Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria. [FIVB]

The Korean national women's volleyball team enters the court to play a Volleyball Nations League match against China on Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria. [FIVB]

Korea's disastrous run at the Volleyball Nations League came to an end on Sunday without a single win across the entire tournament, marking Korea's worst outing ever at the event.

With a 3-1 defeat against China on Sunday, Korea ended their time at the VNL with 12 losses and no wins, at the very bottom of the standings. The second to last is Belgium with four wins and eight losses.

Korea’s best finish in the VNL was 12th place in 2018, with five wins and 10 losses. In 2019, Korea finished 15th with three wins and 12 losses and the 2020 VNL season was canceled due to Covid-19. Last year, Korea finished second to last.

While last year's VNL was played in a bubble with all matches held in Rimini, Italy, the 2022 VNL returned to its original format where 16 countries compete in a round robin across six cities around the world.

For the first seven matches played in the United States and Brazil, Korea was completely shut out and lost all seven matches in three straight sets.

On June 19, Korea won their first set of the tournament against Turkey, taking the first set 25-20 and then losing the next three 25-13, 25-19 and 25-15. Korea was unable to win any more sets in the next two matches against No. 8 Thailand and No. 2 Brazil.

For the last two matches against No. 3 Italy on Friday and No. 4 China on Sunday, Korea was able to win a set in both matches rather than rolling over for a three-set drubbing.

Korea put up a good fight with Italy on Friday. Italy took the first set 25-17 but Korea was able to win the second set 25-23 after a good fight. Italy took the last two sets 25-15 and 25-19.

Italy was better than Korea in attacks, blocks, serves, digs and had less errors, but not by a significant margin. Italy had 55 attacks and Korea had 42, while Italy had 11 blocks to Korea's six. Italy won 29 points from Korean errors while Korea won 27 from Italian errors.

On Sunday, Korea was also able to take the second set 25-19 against China after conceding the first set 25-13.

Against China, Korea had a weaker defense, lagging behind in blocks. China had 12 blocks while Korea had four. However, Korea was able to induce more errors from the opponent’s side, adding 26 points from China’s errors while China added 24 from Korea’s.

China won 3-1 with 95 points in total, just 14 more than Korea’s 81.

For both matches, the best scorer of team Korea was Lee Han-bi, who added 14 points against Italy and 12 points against China.

Lee Da-hyeon, center, attacks during a Volleyball Nations League match against China on Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria. [FIVB]

This year's Volleyball Nations League was always going to be a harder outing for Korea than last season with the absence of veterans Kim Yeon-koung, Kim Su-ji and Yang Hyo-jin from the squad.

The revamped Korean national volleyball team had jetted off on May 31 to start their VNL season with a very different squad as the three veterans all retired from the national team last year after competing at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games.

Only nine players in the 2022 squad — Lee Da-hyeon, Yeum Hye-seon, Han Da-hye, An Hye-jin, Park Eun-jin, Park Jeong-ah, Jeong Ji-yun, Kim Hee-jin and Pyo Seung-ju — played in the 2021 Volleyball Nations League.

Korean national women's volleyball head coach Cesar Hernandez Gonzalez watches Korea play a Volleyball Nations League match against China on Sunday in Sofia, Bulgaria. [FIVB]

Not only was there a change to the roster, Korea started the new VNL season with a new man at the helm. Korea played the 2022 season under new head coach Cesar Hernandez Gonzalez, who was appointed head coach in October last year for a three-year term from 2022 to 2024. He was an assistant coach under former head coach Stefano Lavarini from 2019 to 2021. This season’s Volleyball Nations League was Gonzalez's debut with the team.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]