Korean volleyball returns this weekend for the KOVO Cup

Park Jeong-ah of the Gwangju AI Peppers celebrates during a training session at Pepper Stadium in Gwangju on July 19. [YONHAP]

The V League teams will be back in action at the 2023 Korean Volleyball Federation Cup (KOVO Cup), where the teams will test out their squad ahead of the upcoming 2023-24 season.

The KOVO Cup is a tournament in which all seven V League teams participate ahead of the regular season. This year’s edition includes eight teams in total, as Supreme Chonburi of Thailand will join the tournament — the first invitee to compete in the event since 2018.

The Gwangju AI Peppers are one of the teams with the most notable changes, having signed outside hitters Park Jeong-ah and Chae Seon-ah after the end of last season, when they finished the league in last-place for the second time in a row — the team was founded in 2021.

Park was the key behind her former team Gimcheon Korea Expressway Hi-Pass’s last season championship victory, while Chae also displayed a solid performance at Daejeon KGC last season.

Both Hi-Pass and KGC did not make significant changes to their squad, although former Hi-Pass middle blocker Jung Dae-young transferred to the GS Caltex Seoul KIXX to continue her career at age 41.

The Hwaseong IBK Altos, on the other hand, reinforced their attack by signing Hwang Min-kyoung from Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate. Hwang will likely fill in the gap left by Kim Hee-jin at the KOVO Cup, who is out with an injury.

Last season’s league runners-up Hillstate also did not make any huge signings, but they still have a squad filled with the likes of Yang Hyo-jin and Kim Yeon-gyeon, who are capable of showing last season’s performance at the KOVO Cup.

The Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders also have a formidable squad, with the addition of middle blocker Kim Su-ji as well as ace Kim Yeon-koung still on the team.

Whether the Pink Spiders can show last season’s league winner-performance in the KOVO Cup is unclear, as the two Kims will not compete in the Cup. Kim Su-ji is going through rehabilitation for a knee injury, while Kim Yeon-koung opted to skip the event.

Most teams will be without their best possible squads, as all foreign players are not able to compete in the KOVO Cup due to ongoing International Transfer Certificate issues.

The same goes for those foreign players who joined the V League this year through the Asian Quota Draft — a new system adopted this year through which teams can add an extra foreign player to their squad from selected Asian countries.

Eight teams, divided in Groups A and B, will first play in the group stage with a round-robin format, with the top two teams from each reaching the semifinals.

Group A is made up of Hi-Pass, Peppers, Hillstate and KGC, while the Pink Spiders, Altos, KIXX and Supreme Chonburi will compete in Group B.

The KOVO Cup will run from Saturday through Aug. 5, with all games scheduled to take place at Park Chung-hee Gymnasium in Gumi, North Gyeongsang.

The first game between Peppers and Hi-Pass will start on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]