“(Lee) Yoon Shin-i is doing a perfect job right now”
These were the words of GS Caltex’s head coach, Cha Sang-hyun, after the women’s professional volleyball team lost their away match against IBK IBK in the third round of the 2023 V-League with a set score of 1-3 (24-26 28-26 21-25 20-25) at Hwaseong Gymnasium 바카라사이트 on Saturday.
Before the match, Cha expressed both concern and hope for the ups and downs of his star setter, Kim Ji-won. “I expected her to be shaky. This is her first time playing full-time. Even if she was on the national team, she wasn’t a starter. “I’m hoping that the difference between when I’m playing well and when I’m playing badly will be small because I have less experience,” he said. Of course, volleyball is a sport where you don’t get better in one dramatic moment. I will wait for the gap to get smaller and smaller.”
Kim Ji-won was shaky again on the day, with little use of her fastball, and her double-winged tosses were read before they were fired, allowing the opposing blockers to easily catch up to the attackers. After dropping the first set in a deuce and falling behind midway through the second set, Cha turned to Lee Yoon-shin, the fourth-ranked rookie of the season, to take command on the court.
Although Cha did not give her any specific orders, Lee Yoon-shin frequently utilized the middle blockers of Jung Dae-young and Han Su-ji as soon as she entered the court. The tosses from both wings were sometimes short, forcing Gisele Silva, Kang So-hwi, and Yoo Seo-yeon to get into the paint, but given that they were rookies who had just started their professional careers, they had the guts to do their job without trembling even though they were playing ‘firefighter’.
After the game, Cha lamented, “(Kim) Ji-won needs to find stability soon, so that the whole team can be revitalized…” and added, “In my experience, 70% of the entire offense is about two-blocking. Attackers feel overwhelmed when they have to deal with two-blocking almost every time.” “Whether it’s a reception or not, the opposing middle blockers rarely prepare for our fastbreaks, so we used (Lee) Yoon Shin-yi.”
When asked if Yoon’s double-winged toss was a little unnerving, Cha smiled and said, “She’s still in her third year of high school. If the toss is a little short or something like that, the senior sisters have to hit her well to hide it,” he said, adding, “I didn’t ask her to play more fastballs in the second set. I didn’t ask her to play more fastballs in the second set because I didn’t want her to be swayed by my orders, but she went in and played a lot of fastballs.”
With Kim Ji-won’s ups and downs, Cha is also considering switching her starting setter to Lee Yoon-shin. “I’m thinking about using (Lee) Yoon Shin-yi as a starter first. Today’s loss didn’t change our ranking, so it’s still a good situation. I will discuss with the coaching staff and consider whether to change the starting setter.”