Hillstate's record winning streak ends a day after it begins

Park Jeong-ah of Korea Expressway Hi-pass, left, plays the ball against Hyundai Hillstate on Wednesday at Gimcheon Sports Complex in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang. [NEWS1]

Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate's winning streak was cut at 15 matches on Wednesday, when the Korea Expressway Hi-pass beat the Suwon club 3-0 just one game after they set a new V League record.

Hillstate is currently on top of the women's V League table with 27 wins and two losses. Both losses were against the second-place Hi-pass. Hillstate are currently just one win away from taking the title with seven matches still to play in the season.

However, Hi-pass were able to stop the top team from achieving that feat at their home stadium, shutting out Hillstate in three sets, 25-22, 25-19, 25-18.

Hillstate were able to achieve a new record in women's V League on Tuesday, after beating the Industrial Bank of Korea Altos at Suwon Gymnasium with a set score of 3-1, beating the previous record of 14 consecutive wins set by Seoul GS Caltex Kixx in the 2009-10 season.

During their 15 consecutive wins, Hillstate won 45 sets conceding only 10 sets in total. They pulled off a 3-0 complete shutout in seven of their matches and had to play only two five-full-set games.

The 2021-2022 women's V League season started this October and resumed play on Monday after taking a break during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

This season, Hillstate have dominated the league. Last December, Hillstate reached a winning streak of 12 games that fell apart on Dec. 7, when Korea Expressway Corporation Hi-pass beat them 3-2 to cut the streak. The current winning streak started from the very next game.


Hillstate is looking to win the V League trophy for the first time in 11 years. The last time Hillstate won the trophy was in the 2010-2011 season, when they won 20 out of 24 matches.

Hillstate missed out on their chance at winning in the 2019-2020 season, which was cut short after the first five rounds. Hillstate had topped the table that season after winning 20 matches and losing seven.

Last season, Hillstate finished at the bottom of the table, winning only 11 of their 30 matches.


The Pink Spiders hold the most titles, having won the Championship title in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2019. They also finished runner-up four times in 2008, 2011, 2017 and last season, when they lost to the Kixx in the Championship series.


Hillstate will play their next match against Korea Ginseng Corporation on Thursday.

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