Korea cut 30-game, 3-year losing streak at Volleyball Nations League

The Korean women’s volleyball team beat Thailand 3-1 in the 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on Sunday, cutting their 30-game losing streak in the annual tournament.

The Korean women's volleyball team [XINHUA/YONHAP]

The Korean women’s volleyball team beat Thailand 3-1 in the 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on Sunday, cutting their 30-game losing streak in the annual tournament.

The VNL is an international competition in which 16 countries participate across multiple locations around the world.

In Sunday’s game in Brazil, Korea went on the attack from the beginning, winning the first set 25-19. Thailand took the second set 25-23, but Korea bounced back to win the third set 25-16 and fourth set 25-17 for a final score of 3-1, securing their first win in the VNL in nearly three years.

Korea’s last win in the tournament was against Canada in June 2021. They lost three straight games in the competition afterward and lost all 24 games in the 2022 and 2023 tournaments, before suffering three more losses this year to China, Brazil and Dominican Republic.

Sunday’s victory is Korea’s first under new head coach Fernando Morales, who took the helm in March after former head coach Cesar Hernandez was sacked in October last year following a fifth-place finish at the Hangzhou Asian Games last fall.

Korea showed significant improvement against Thailand, with four players recording double-digit points for the first time.

Kang So-hwi scored 22 points as the top scorer, while Park Jeong-ah and Jeong Ji-yun scored 16 apiece and Lee Ju-ah recorded 11.

In the past two games, Korea saw only one player scoring double digits. Kang recorded 11 against China on May 14, and Jeong picked up 12 against the Dominican Republic on Saturday. Not a single player scored double-digits in a 3-0 loss to Brazil on May 16.

With one win in hand, Korea will head to the United States for the second week of their 2024 VNL journey that runs from May 28 to June 2.

Morales’s squad will next face Bulgaria on May 29.

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