Korea qualifies for the Olympic semi-finals – Volleyball News
Under the command of Head Coach Kim Hyung Sil, Korean women’s national volleyball team paved its way to the semi-finals of the Olympic volleyball tournament.
Korea overcame the resilient rival Italy in a four-set affair at the Earls Court and clinched success 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 25-20, and 25-18). The cracking volleyball action was witnessed by some 13,000 fans. Korea qualified for the Olympic semi-finals for
the first time since 1976 Olympic Games. Hence, it turned out be a great achievement for Korean team. Next up, the team will be challenged by top-ranked American squad in the semi-final match no Thursday.
Clad in No. 10 shirt Kim Yeon-Koung led Korea to success in the match. She performed amazingly well and devastated the opponents with her unstoppable shots. She added 23 spikes and four blocks in the match. Overall, she was credited for 28 points. Han Song-Yi
also played an active role in the match and finished with 17 points.
On the other hand, five Italian players went into double digits. Antonella Del Core emerged as the top-scorer on Italian side with a total of 16 points.
Kim Yeon-Koung of Korea came into stride with Italy’s Antonella Del Core in the opening frame of the match. Both players showed their skills on the centre court and did not miss a single chance to score points. Korea earned a small lead over Italy in the
early few minutes and tried to stretch out the gap. In the meanwhile, Italy hit back aggressively and went up on the scoreboard. Thereafter, the point-to-point battle continued and Italy secured opening stanza (25-18).
Korean team dropped the opening set of the match with seven points, but made a great comeback in the following frames. With the help of better attack strategy, Korea claimed the next three sets in a row and bagged crucial victory.
Korean mentor Kim Hyung Sil congratulated his team for victory. He praised their hard work and wished them luck for the semi-final match.
“I would like to congratulate the Korean team. They have absolutely deserved this victory. They played better than us in all situations. My team has played well in this tournament, but this evening Korea has played better. All the team of Korea played very
well. Obviously with a player like Kim, number 10, who is one of the best players in the world, but the whole team were tougher against us and they were better in both defence and receiving,” said Italy Coach Massimo Barbolini.
Tags: