Cheered on by their fans, Korea celebrate their spot in the final
Ostrava, Czech Republic, July 29, 2017 – Numerous enthusiastic Korean fans on the stands in Ostrava inspired their favourites to master an incredible comeback from two sets down in the first semifinal of Group 2 in FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2017.
Korea’s captain
Yeon Koung Kim led the effort towards a 3-2 (19-25, 13-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-12) victory over
Germany and on to Sunday’s big final.
Kim hammered out a fantastic 27 points, including three aces, to become the best scorer of the match.
Louisa Lippmann led the charts on the German side with 24 points.
This outcome upped Korea’s World Grand Prix head-to-head record against Germany to nine wins out of 12 matches played so far.
While the Germans were doing most of the work in the first set, especially in attack, the Koreans were relying a lot on errors on the opponents’ side of the net. Between the two technical time-outs, the European team broke away and cruised to a 25-19 win with a block by
Jennifer Geerties for the last point. The momentum brought Germany to a 6-0 lead in the second set. Korea’s captain Yeon Koung Kim tried inspiring here teammates for a comeback, but it was only a short-lived effort. Two aces by Louisa Lippmann in a row finished the set off at 25-13.
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Set 3 was very competitive through 18-18, after which the Asians managed to stay more focused to take the lead. With a great blocking effort by
Su Ji Kim in the final moments of the set, it ended at 25-21 to keep the Koreans alive. With Yeon Koung Kim on fire, her team was well in control of the fourth set and won it by a wide margin – 25-18. She continued to hit point after point in the tie-breaker to help open a wide gap. Shortly before the end, the Germans narrowed it down to only a point, but with
Jeongah Park putting the ball on the floor for the last point Korea triumphed with 15-12 close and a 3-2 victory.