The mood is not good lately. OK Financial Group and KEPCO are in desperate need of a rebound.
The two teams will meet in the third round of the Dodram V League Men’s Division for the 2023-2024 season on Nov. 21 at Sangryoksu Gymnasium in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do. Both teams are currently tied at 8 wins and 8 losses, but KEPCO is in fourth place with 24 points and OK Financial Group is in fifth place with 22 points.
The two teams in the chaotic mid-table battle have coincidentally suffered back-to-back losing streaks. OK Financial Group has lost four in a row, while KEPCO has lost two in a row after a seven-game winning streak.
OK Financial Group was shutout for the third consecutive game after losing a close full-set match against Woori Card on March 3. In the previous match against Samsung Fire, Chae-hwan took the court for the first time in a while, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the team from losing.
The longer the losing streak goes on, the worse her receiving efficiency becomes. In the game against Samsung Fire, it was only 8.06%. It is urgent for the team to regain its receiving stability in order to run a smooth offense.
The lineup is also a big concern. In particular, Kwak Myung-woo and Lee Min-kyu are alternating at setter, but there is no clear center. This has led to frequent substitutions among the attackers.
KEPCO has had a bit of a rough patch. Head coach Kwon Young-min, who played as a “punitive gentleman” during the winning streak, switched to a different suit in an attempt to stop the losing streak, but it didn’t work.
KEPCO, which had risen to second place, dropped to fourth. If they don’t get a win tonight, they could fall as low as fifth.
It’s encouraging to see Seo Jae-duk’s offense come alive while the duo of Taith and Lim Sung-jin are doing their job. However, they will need to improve their focus to get the win.
The KEPCO has fallen into a losing streak in its last two games due to frequent errors. They committed 26 errors against Korean Air on the 13th and 24 against Woori Card on the 16th.
In particular, more than half of the errors were serve errors. It’s painful to see that the Tigers, who had an impressive 0.48 serves per set last season, have nearly halved their number of serves this season (0.25 per set).
KEPCO lost the momentum with service errors that came at every opportunity to keep up with their opponents. They need to stay focused to rebound.