KEPCO scored a set score of 안전놀이터 in a confrontation with Hyundai Capital in the 5th round of the Dodram 2022-2023 V-League Men’s Division held at the Indoor Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do on the afternoon of the 5th. He won and went on a four-game winning streak. Like the Korean Air match on the 2nd, the first set was given away and the 2nd to 4th sets were brought.

KEPCO (12 wins, 14 losses, 38 points), which added 3 points, pulled down OK Financial Group (12 wins, 14 losses, 37 points) and rose to 4th place. On the other hand, 2nd place Hyundai Capital (16-10, 49 points), which did not gain even a single point, failed to close the gap with leader Korean Air (19-6, 55 points).

 succeeded in suppressing the baseline. Oreol Camejo (registered name Oreol), who scored 8 points including 3 blocks, led the team. Here, the presence of Jeon Kwang-in and Choi Min-ho, who each scored 4 points, stood out.

KEPCO, which finished the first set without blocking, gained strength from the second set. At 16-16, Kyo-Hyeok Koo took the lead as a sub ace, and then the score gap began to widen due to Orreol’s offense. In 22-20, KEPCO, which broke the opponent’s will to pursue with the serve ace of Tais Deul Host (registered name Tais), ended the second set with Seo Jae-deok’s open attack.

Tais, who started from the second set, continued the atmosphere in the third set. After succeeding in consecutive sub aces in 18-19, he even made a back attack. In 21-20, KEPCO, which solidified its victory with Seo Jae-deok’s C fast attack and Shin Young-seok’s serve ace, ended the third set with Seo Jae-deok’s serve ace.

Hyundai Capital, who could not withdraw as it was, ran away from 1-1 in the 4th set to 1-6 with 5 points in a row. In the process, blocking by Choi Min-ho (1) and Kameho (2) broke out, and Hyundai Capital’s strength seemed to be revived.

However, KEPCO, which took the lead by scoring 6 points from 4-8, steadily accumulated points centered on Thais and Seo Jae-deok. On the other hand, Hyundai Capital was in a hurry to catch up, with ‘veteran’ Yeo Oh-hyun recording a crime. In the end, Sungmin Moon’s serve, which was substituted in 24-23, was caught in the net, and the game ended as it was. 

The player who scored the most points among both teams was Thais (27 points), with an attack success rate of 47.73%. However, he failed to achieve the triple crown (recording more than 3 each of back attack, blocking, and sub aces) because he lacked only one block (2).

The performance of domestic players also shone. Seo Jae-deok (18 points), who recorded a 55.17% attack success rate, and Shin Young-seok (10 points), who showed 6 quick attacks, supported the Thais. Even after showing an overwhelming inferiority in the number of team blocks (KEPCO 4, Hyundai Capital 17), they did not give up.

On the other hand, Hyundai Capital’s three players – Oreol (25 points), Jeon Kwang-in (15 points), and Choi Min-ho (12 points) – scored double digits, but lacked support. In particular, he recorded 23 serving errors, but at each important moment, his ankle was caught by his serve. 

Until just a month ago, KEPCO was a losing team. Starting with the 2nd round match against Samsung Fire & Marine on November 29 last year, and ending with the 4th round against Samsung Fire & Marine on January 5, they lost 9 consecutive matches. Of course, the possibility of spring volleyball was becoming increasingly rare.

However, including the Woori Card game on the 10th of last month, when they broke their losing streak, they recorded 6 wins and 1 loss in the last 7 games, and the flow is the best among the 7 men’s teams. Now, the gap with the 3rd place Woori Card (14 wins, 12 losses, 39 points) is only 1 point. Attention is focusing on whether the rising trend of KEPCO, which is heating up the men’s ranking competition, will continue. The next schedule for KEPCO is the KB Insurance Exhibition on the 9th (Thursday).