Defense stands out as V League championship remains tied

The Incheon Korean Air Jumbos, including libero Oh Eun-ryul, second from left, cheer during the second game of the V league championship series at Gyeyang Arena in Incheon on Monday. [NEWS1]

The men's V League championship series is tied at a game a piece with neither the Seoul Woori Card Wibees or Incheon Korean Air Jumbos able to find an edge in the best-of-five series.

The Wibees beat regular season winners the Jumbos on Sunday night 3-0, ending the first match in just three sets.

But just when it looked like the Wibees would dominate the series, the Jumbos came back with a vengeance on Monday taking five sets to take down the Wibees 3-2.

Monday's was a lengthy game that took a total of two hours and 28 minutes, almost an hour more than the game on Sunday.

The Wibees took the second set of the game 29-27 after a hard-fought 42 minutes. It takes 25 points to win the first four sets of the game, but a set can only be won when one team is at least two points ahead.

The already fierce competition heightened as both teams' liberos put on a show with some incredible digs to keep the ball in play.

Liberos, as defensive players, are responsible for receiving an attack or serve. Liberos go for a dig when they drop to the floor, preventing the ball from touching the court at the very last second.

The Jumbos’ libero Oh Eun-ryul and Wibees’ liberos Jang Ji-won and Lee Sang-wook made a significantly higher number of super saves during the championships than during the regular season: Oh made three digs per set during the championships as opposed to 1.32 during the regular season, Jang made three digs as opposed to 2.08 and Lee made 2.88 as opposed to 1.5.

The best-of-five series will continue with the third match at Jangchung Gymnasium in central Seoul, on Wednesday.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]