Pepper Savings Bank’s ‘winning streak snatched from under our noses’ and the cold won’t go away
Pepper Savings Bank’s first back-to-back wins slipped through their fingers.
Pepper Savings Bank fell 2–3 (25–15 14–25 25–22 23–25 7–15) in a tightly contested full-set match at home against IBK IBK Corporate Bank in the sixth round of the Dodram 2023–24 V League Women’s Division at Pepper Stadium in Gwangju on Monday.
With just one more point, Pepper Savings Bank remained in last place with a 3–29 record (11 points). On the other hand, fifth-ranked IBK Corporate Bank, which added two points, improved to 15–17 (46 points) and trails fourth-ranked GS Caltex (48 points) by two points, keeping its chances of advancing to spring volleyball alive.
Pepper Savings Bank is having one of its worst years this season. After losing 23 straight games, the longest losing streak in V-League history, Pepper Savings Bank ended the streak on the 23rd of this month against Roadworks. And this game against IBK was a golden opportunity for the team to challenge for its first back-to-back wins.
The biggest bad news is the controversy surrounding veteran Oh Ji-young. He was referred to a punishment committee for allegedly bullying teammates and received a one-year suspension. The club issued an apology and Oh is preparing an appeal, but the turbulent team atmosphere is not going away anytime soon.
The club fired head coach Cho Trinzi and appointed Lee Kyung-soo as acting head coach, citing poor performance and negligence in managing the team, and vowed to clean up the atmosphere before the game against IBK.
It wasn’t a bad start. After taking the first set 25–15, they dropped the second set, but came back to take the third set and came close to winning the match.
However, they came up short. Pepper Savings Bank tied the match at 23–23 in the fourth set thanks to Park Jung-ah, but they couldn’t stop Abe Crombie’s attack and allowed Hwang Min-kyung to score a quick opener, dropping the fourth set.
The momentum eventually shifted in favor of Pepper Savings Bank. In the fifth set, Pepper Savings Bank ran out 메이저토토사이트 of energy, and the team’s hard-hitting attacks were blocked by the opponent’s blocking, ending the set in straight sets and ending their winning streak.
Yasmin led the offense with a team-high 30 points, while Park Jung-ah supported her with 15 points, but the team’s efforts were not enough to win the match.
Meanwhile, in the men’s competition, KB Insurance also came from behind to win 3–2 (19–25 25–16 25–20 25–27 15–11) in a tightly contested full-set match against Samsung Fire.
KB, which snapped a nine-game losing streak, improved to 5–27 (21 points) and earned its first win under acting head coach Kim Hak-min, who took over after the resignation of coach Hu In-jung.
