Korean women's volleyball fall 3-2 to Bulgaria in another VNL loss

Korea's Kang So-hwi attacks during a 2024 Volleyball Nations League game against Bulgaria in the United States on Wednesday. [FIVB]

The Korean women’s volleyball team lost 3-2 to Bulgaria in their first game of the second week of the 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on Wednesday, recording a loss after cutting their 30-game losing streak in the annual competition earlier this month.

The VNL is an international tournament in which 16 countries participate across multiple locations around the world.

The squad led by new head coach Fernando Morales was back in action in the United States after finishing the first week of the tournament on May 19 with one win and three losses.

Korea lost the first set 25-23, but grabbed the second set 25-20 and third set 26-24. Bulgaria, however, bounced back to win the fourth set 25-21, forcing a fifth set to decide the winner.

The last set was fairly well-matched, but Bulgaria broke the deadlock at 8-8 and took the score to 15-11 for a final score of 3-2.

Wednesday’s loss came despite five Korean players scoring double digits for the first time in this year’s VNL. Kang So-hwi recorded 23 points, Lee Da-hyeon added 17, Park Jeong-ah had 16, Jeong Ji-yun had 12 and Lee Ju-ah had 11.

Bulgaria, on the other hand, only had two players with double digits: Top scorer Merelin Nikolova with 28 and Miroslava Paskova with 13.

Korea was due to play Poland in the United States on Thursday as of press time, with the squad facing Turkey and Canada later in the second week of the VNL.

Following the game against Canada on June 3, Korea will head to Japan for the third week running from June 11 to 16.

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