Oh no, “Villena Phobia.”
Korean Air, the defending champion in men’s professional volleyball, has been caught again by KB Insurance (KB Insurance), the lowest ranking team. There is a strange situation.
Korean Air was completely defeated by KB Insurance with a set score of 1–3 (14–25, 27–29, 25–14, 22–25) in the men’s fourth round away match of the 2023–24 Dodram V-League held at Uijeongbu Gymnasium in Gyeonggi Province on the 9th. After losing by 11 points in the first set, he lost his winning power by giving up to the second set after the deuce match.
Korean Air won the shutout 3–0 against Woori Card, ranking first in the league, on Tuesday, the previous day. In the match, Lim Dong-hyuk, a native Apogit spy, scored 28 points. Lim was also at the vanguard of KB Insurance, but lost 30 points to Andres Villena, a foreign player.
Given key indicators of the match, the gap in performance in the game was not so big. Korean Air had more than one point on offense (58), while blocking was pushed to 6–9, but sub-ace (five) had more than three. However, the team lost ground in the race for momentum after scoring 20 points in the second and fourth sets.
The same is true when looking at the average record of four games this season. The number of serve receptions, the beginning of the offense, stood at 44.62 percent, much higher than the average (42.89 percent) of teams in the season. KB only posted 36.06 percent of losses. As in Game 4 on Sunday, blocking was slightly delayed, but sub-ays were more common.
Korean Air also lost 1–3 in its third round match against KB Insurance, which it played at home (Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon) on April 10. It has lost two consecutive games since winning the first and second rounds.
Lim scored 42 points in the third round, while Villena scored 43 points, more than that. Korean Air lost to KB Insurance for the second straight time because it failed to block Villena.
In fact, Villena had the highest attack success rate (58.02 percent) in the match against Korean Air this season. It was higher than the season average (54.08 percent). Among the four opposing teams (Korean Air, Hyundai Capital, Woori Card and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance) that played in both rounds, Villena scored the most points (112) in the match against Korean Air.
Villena entered the V-League after being drafted by Korean Air ahead of the 2019–20 season. That year, Villena ranked first in both the score (786) and the overall offense (56.36 percent). However, she was released in the next season and returned to the Korean league as a substitute for KB Insurance in the 2022–23 season.
Villena gave technical advice to Lim Dong-hyuk, a promising player in the team, when he was a member of Korean Air. He was a friendly teammate.
Villena, who has that connection, is currently the most outstanding player in the Korean Air match.