Pink Spiders fall to the Kixx after tough five-set match

Volleyball

Published: 21 Dec. 2022, 14:18 Updated: 21 Dec. 2022, 16:22

Pink Spiders fall to the Kixx after tough five-set match

Laetitia Moma Bassoko of the GS Caltex Kixx spikes the ball against the Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders at Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The GS Caltex Seoul Kixx cut their losing streak to three matches after beating the Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders on Tuesday.

The Kixx were able to take the first set 27-25 and the second set 25-18, but the Pink Spiders fought back to win the third and fourth set and push the match to a fifth set.

But the Seoul club outplayed the Incheon club by five points, winning the match 3-2 to cut their losing streak to three matches.

The Kixx were beaten by Suwon Hyundai Hillstate 3-2 on Dec. 8, then lost to the Hwaseong IBK Altos 3-2 on Dec. 11 and to Hyundai Hillstate 3-1 on Dec. 15.

The win puts the Kixx one step closer to getting back into the fight for the title. Tuesday’s win put the Seoul club one win over sixth-place Korea Ginseng Corporation and tied on number of wins with the fourth-place Altos.

While Hyundai Hillstate remains unbeaten since the start of the season and are looking more and more like the team to beat with 14 wins in a row, the loss comes as bad news for the Pink Spiders who are trying to chase down the leaders.

On Tuesday, V League favorites Jelena Mladjenović and Kim Yeon-koung rallied for the Incheon club, scoring 30 points and 29 points respectively to become the top two scorers in the match.

Despite scoring four more points than the Kixx for a total of 104, the Kixx were the ones to score when they needed it the most.

With the loss, the No. 2 Pink Spiders are now two wins away from the top spot.

Kim Yeon-koung of the Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders reacts during a match against the Seoul GS Caltex at Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

However their fight for the title will continue, especially with Korean volleyball legend and former national team captain Kim Yeon-koung on the side.

Kim this June signed a one-year, 700-million-won ($542,000) deal to rejoin the Pink Spiders.

She debuted in 2005 with the Incheon club and moved overseas for the first time in 2009, joining a Japanese club.

The last time Kim played for the Pink Spiders was in the 2020-21 season, when she returned for one season after 11 years playing in Japan, China and Turkey.

Kim then jetted off to Shanghai in May of 2021 to join the Shanghai Bright Ubest Women's Volleyball Club, returning to the team four years after she led it to the top of the Chinese Super League in the 2017-18 season to snap a 17-year drought. The team finished runner-up in the championship that year.

At the time, the Pink Spiders, who Kim is still contractually bound to if she plays in Korea, made it clear that an offer was always on the table, rebuffing the suggestion of a trade to Pepper Savings Bank at the start of the season.

After having spent a restless 2020-21 season, playing a total of 41 games including the KOVO Cup, all regular season games and the championship playoffs, one of the main reasons Kim chose the Shanghai club seemed to be because of the shorter season.

This January, Kim became a free agent internationally after rounding off the Chinese Volleyball Super League season with Shanghai Bright Ubest to finish the 2021-22 season in third place.

Kim initially headed to the United States for training, and at the time it looked unlikely that she would return to the V League. That changed when Kim returned home from training and the Pink Spiders reached out to offer a deal.

Kim's popularity last year also made her the first volleyball player with more than one million subscribers on her YouTube channel and, according to some reports, the most tweeted female athlete in the world in 2021.

Her popularity also led to one of the most popular V League seasons in the history of Korean volleyball, as fans filled the stands every game to watch her play.

The Pink Spiders will hope to get some redemption when they next face the Altos on Saturday, while the Kixx will look for their second win a row when they face the Gwangju Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers on Friday.

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