South Korea’s women’s volleyball team won its first full-set match at the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a loss.

The women’s national volleyball team (ranked 36th in the world), led by head coach 현금홀덤사이트 Cesar Hernández González (46-Spain), lost to Germany (ranked 12th) by a set score of 3-2 (13-25 21-25 25-23 25-22 7-15) after two hours and two minutes in the third match of the preliminary round of the tournament in Łódź, Poland on Monday.

Korea struggled against Germany’s high hitting attack in the first set and lost the set in 20 minutes.

They regrouped and fought back to 18-18 in the second set, but once again lost the set due to a lack of focus in the final minutes.

However, South Korea did not go down without a fight. They fought back in the third set. After being evenly matched throughout the set, Korea took the set at 23-23 when Lee Han-bi (27, Pepper Savings Bank) and Lee Da-hyun (22, Hyundai E&C) scored side-by-side.

In the fourth set, Korea fell behind 8-12 early on, but the Germans were relentless. At 22-22, they scored the next three points to level the match.

In the fifth set, South Korea battled back to tie the game at 6-6, but four consecutive errors put the game out of reach. They recovered one point, but five unforced errors brought them to their knees.
Kang So-hwi (26-GS Caltex) led the team with 18 points, including three blocked shots, followed by Lee Han-bi with 15 points. The middle blocker “duo” Park Eun-jin (24) and Jung Ho-young (22) added eight digs apiece. Libero Kim Yeon-yeon (30-Hyundai E&C) also held up with a decent receiving efficiency (41.18%).

However, the ‘height’ difference was felt as the Germans were out-blocked (54-66) and out-hit (7-15). However, the advantage in serving (7-5) was encouraging.

After falling to Italy (5-0, 3-0) and Poland (7-1, 3-0) earlier in the day, Korea suffered their third straight loss of the tournament. However, they still earned their first point of the tournament by taking the match to a full set.

South Korea is in Pool C alongside Italy, Poland, Germany, USA (3rd), Colombia (22nd), Thailand (14th), and Slovenia (28th). They need to finish in the top two out of eight teams to qualify for the main stage in Paris. All of these teams are ranked higher than Korea, so it won’t be easy.

However, there is still hope for Korea, as the team showed great determination against powerhouse Germany.

South Korea will play its fourth group game against the United States at the same venue on Tuesday.