South Korea men’s volleyball narrowly missed out on a place in the round of 12 after picking up their first win at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The Koreans (ranked 27th in the world) defeated Cambodia (unranked) in straight sets 3-0 (25-23 25-13 25-15) in the second match of their Pool C preliminary round at the Linping Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China on 21 November. With the win, the team improved to 1-1 in the group stage and qualified for the round of 12 as the second best team in the group. Earlier in the day, the team lost to unranked India (ranked 73rd in the world) by a set score of 2-3 (27-25 27-29 22-25 25-20 15-17) to finish first in the group. Their quarter-final opponents on the 22nd will be Pakistan (ranked 51st in the world), who topped Group D. Head coach Lim Do-heon entrusted setter Han to command the court, with middle blockers Kim Min-jae and Kim Kyu-min in the centre. The libero is Park Kyung-min .In the attack, apogee spiker Heo Su-bong and outside hitter Na Kyung-bok started as they did yesterday. Jo Jung-seok, who missed the previous day due to back pain, stepped onto the court to add firepower .Against Cambodia, who are considered to be at an amateur level, the Korean team had a rough start to the match. Despite being of similar average height, they put themselves in a difficult situation by conceding four blocking points and committing 11 attack errors in the first set alone .At 6-8, Heo Su-bong failed to serve and was blocked by the blocking wall, giving up a 10-point lead .At 14-15, Na Kyung-bok failed to hit a ball that floated in the centre of the court and went over the line. The team reached the 20-point mark at 18-18 after a late attack by Lim Dong-hyuk and an opponent’s error, followed by a service ace by Jeong Ji-seok and a block by Kim Kyu-min. However, their serve and receive faltered sharply and they gave up four consecutive points to tie the game at 22-22.Fortunately, after exchanging points, they were able to take the first set thanks to a fast ball from Kim Min-jae and a push attack from Na Kyung-bok .In the second set, the team seemed to have warmed up and played more easily .In particular, Lim Dong-hyuk and Jeong Ji-seok’s attacking power on both wings was revitalised and they went on a scoring streak from 3-3 to 9-3.There was a moment of anxiety as they allowed their lead to grow to 12-9, but they reduced their errors to three in the second set and revitalised their blocking score (3-0) to take the second set. The victorious team took a three-point lead at the start of the third set with two attack points from Kim Min-jae and a service ace from Han .After gradually increasing their lead, the Korean team created match point with a spike by Jung Ji-seok and ended the game with a straight attack by Heo Su-bong.Jeong Ji-seok was the top scorer for both teams with 11 points, while Kim Min-jae (10 points), Lim Dong-hyuk (9 points) 바카라사이트 and Kim Kyu-min (8 points) contributed.
