Korean Air Jumbos take double with championship win over Wibees

Incheon Korean Air Jumbos players celebrate after scoring the final point to win the championship series against the Seoul Woori Card Wibees at Gyeyang Arena in Incheon on Saturday. [NEWS1]

The Incheon Korean Air Jumbos won the V league championship series against the Seoul Woori Card Wibees at Gyeyang Arena in Incheon on Saturday, walking away with the double for the first time in the team's history.

After being tied with two wins each in the best-of-five series, it came down to the final match where the Jumbos beat the Wibees 3-1 to the championship series with three games to two.

The Jumbos have won the championship once before, in the 2018-19 season, and the regular season pennant twice before, in the 2020-11 and 2016-17 seasons, but this is the first time they've managed to do both in the same year to win the V League double.

Not only is it the Jumbos' first double, it's the first time in seven years that the V League has seen one team sweep both awards. The last time a team picked up the double was back in the 2013-14 season when Samsung Fire Insurance won both.

The final match to determine the champion was air-tight and fiery, as both teams entered deuce — extending the game due to a matched score at 24-24 — in the first three sets of the match.

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.
For the first three sets, whoever won the last two points took away each set.

The Wibees seemed to be off to a good start, taking away the first set of the game 26-24.

The second and third sets were also forced into a tie at 24-24 where the Jumbos were able to pull out 28-26, 27-25, winning both sets.

In the second set, neither team able to pull ahead by two points, the two teams were forced to deuce three times. The Jumbos were able to take away the second set 28-26, the last two points gained with the opponent’s unforced errors.

They were tied once again in the third set when the tide seemed to shift to the Wibees toward the first half, making three consecutive points and staying three points ahead of the opponent 18-15, but the Jumbos were quick to come back with a vengeance, fighting back to a tie and pulling themselves ahead to end at 27-25.

The Jumbos were on fire on the last set, especially with Yosvany Hernandez’s two consecutive serve aces at 5-3, and another two consecutive serve aces at 22-16.

The Cuban left was able to raise a total of five serve aces and score 27 points for the team.

“Winning is normally tough but this season was the toughest of my life. That is why I am more happy than usual about the win” said Jumbos Manager Roberto Santili.

BY YUN SO-HYANG (yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr)