“I was worried at first that it wouldn’t work out like this”
Hyundai E&C’s Yang Hyo-jin was all smiles after winning the first game of the women’s professional volleyball championship. She showed no signs of exhaustion after a three-and-a-half-hour battle. The best antidote to fatigue is victory.
Hyundai E&C defeated Heungkuk Saengsim 3-2 in three sets in the first round of the Dodram 2023-24 V-League Women’s Championship at Suwon Gymnasium on Monday. After dropping the first and second sets, Hyundai E&C was in a deep deficit, but the team came back to win the third, fourth, and fifth sets to complete a miraculous comeback.
The star of the upset drama was the team’s pillar, Yang Hyo-jin. She was responsible for 16 points on the day and made a name for herself. Leticia Moma Basoko (née Moma) was the top scorer with 37 points, but she was not far behind in terms of actual team contributions.
Yang was solid in front of the net, collecting five blocks on the day. She also had a team-high eight effective blocks. Her effective blocking of spikes allowed Hyundai E&C to mount a counterattack.
In fact, Yang has been out since the sixth round of the regular season due to a herniated disk in her neck. She hasn’t been able to fully participate in team training, but she’s still fighting for the championship. “I took a break for almost a week and didn’t work out at all. I feel like I’m getting better thanks to the rest,” she confessed.
After dropping the first and second sets, it looked like Hyundai E&C had no hope of winning the first round. Yang Hyo-jin was also worried because she didn’t feel her best in the first set.
“I just wanted to jump higher and move faster. We looked at each other and thought, ‘Can it really be this bad,'” she said.
Rather, it was the fact that they relieved the pressure of winning and relaxed with the mindset of ‘it’s okay to lose’ that led to the reversal. “After the second set, I took away my desire to win,” Yang said, “and I played with the mindset of ‘let’s just do it’ and ‘let’s go out a little bit,’ so my serve went well and I think I improved in many ways.”
“I didn’t pay attention to my opponent throughout the match, I was only concerned with finding my form,” said Yang, who also didn’t pay much attention to the attention she was getting from playing against her ‘best sister’ Kim Yeon-kyung.
“Our team has been playing well, not just me,” she said, “so I 토토 didn’t think I needed to put any pressure on myself. I don’t see it as a head-to-head matchup with my sister (Kim Yeon-kyung),” she emphasized.
Instead, Yang made no secret of her desire to win the title. Hyundai E&C will be seeking its third championship in eight seasons after winning the 2015-16 title. In 2019-20 and 2021-22, the team was unable to win the championship despite finishing first in the regular season due to COVID-19.
“It’s so good to play in the championship after a long time. It’s so good to be in the championship,” she said, adding, “It’s so good to win the regular season, and it’s so good to have the possibility of winning the championship.” She smiled.
“When I was younger, I won a few championships, but lately, I haven’t been able to do it at the right time, so I got the idea to enjoy the championship at least once,” she said, adding, “But I think I need to do better than I am now to enjoy the championship.”
