South Korea loses 0-3 to world No. 1 Brazil…VNL loses 17th straight game, drops to last place

The South Korean women’s volleyball team suffered its fifth straight loss in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

Head coach Cesar Gonzalez’s side fell to hosts Brazil 0-3 (29-31, 16-25, 16-25) in three sets in the first match of the second week at the Nielsen Nelson Arena in Brasilia, Brazil on Friday (Sept. 15).

South Korea is now winless in five matches at the tournament, including four losses in Week 1 in Turkuye. They have not won a single set. With Kim Yeon-kyung (Heungkuk Life) and Yang Hyo-jin (Hyundai E&C) retiring from the national team, Korea has lost 17 straight VNL matches dating back to last year.

With the loss, South Korea dropped to the bottom of the 16-nation competition. South Korea was one of four teams to lose four matches in Week 1, along with Serbia, the Netherlands, and Croatia. South Korea and Croatia were the only two teams to not win a set. South Korea ended Week 1 in 15th place, ahead of Croatia in points.안전놀이터

While Croatia won a set (1-3) against the United States in their first match of Week 2, South Korea suffered another shutout loss and dropped to last place.

The bar was high for World No. 1 Brazil, who dropped as low as 26th in the FIVB rankings.

The first set was well fought. With setter Kim Ji-won (GS Caltex) and outside hitter Kim Da-eun (Heungkuk Life), the Korean team took the first set to deuce at 23-24 with a quick opener from Kang So-hwi (GS Caltex). They then reached set point at 27-27, but back-to-back errors by their opponents put them at 29-28. But that was it. Brazil scored three straight points to take the lead for good.

Photo courtesy of FIVB
South Korea recorded four blocks in the first set, three more than Brazil.

They dropped the second set, 5-10, and led 11-9 in the third, but couldn’t hold off the Brazilian offense and eventually fell to their knees.
Kim Da-eun led the team with 11 points. She was followed by Kang So-hwi (9 points), Lee Da-hyun (7 points) and Jung Ji-yoon (6 points-all Hyundai E&C).

Korea will face Japan in a fateful rivalry match at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. Japan, ranked seventh in the FIVB World Rankings, has a 3-2 record (10 points) in the tournament.