Japanese invitational team Panasonic swept through the group stage of the Professional Volleyball Cup with a three-game sweep. Samsung Fire’s hopes of topping the group were dashed with a disappointing loss to Panasonic.
Panasonic defeated Samsung Fire by a set score of 3-2 (25-17 25-19 28-30 23-25 15-13) in the third match of the Men’s Group B Preliminary Round of the 2023 Gumi Dodram Cup Professional Volleyball Tournament at Park Jung-hee Gymnasium in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, on November 11.
Panasonic won all three of its group matches to advance to the semifinals as Group B’s top seed. With a 2-1 record, Samsung Fire finished second in the group.
On Wednesday, Panasonic will take on Group A runner-up OK Financial Group, while Samsung Fire will face Group A leader Korean Air for a ticket to the final.
Panasonic’s Yuga Tarumi and Takahiko Imamura combined for 19 points, while Keitaro Nishikawa contributed 15 points, including three blocks and two serves.
Samsung Fire’s Park Sung-jin had 22 points and Shin Shin-ho had 20 points.
Samsung Fire took an early 11-9 lead in the first set, but Panasonic quickly took the lead.
Panasonic scored the next four points, starting with a Nishikawa kill at 12-12, before an Imamura kill and a Kenyu Nakamoto service ace silenced Samsung Fire at 18-16.
The second set also went Panasonic’s way.
After a Samsung Fire error at 18-15 and a block by Nishikawa on a fast break, Panasonic closed out the set at 24-19 on a quick opener by Tarumi.
After dropping the first and second sets in straight sets, Samsung Fire fought back in the third set.
At 22-24, when they were down by a point, they pulled off a dramatic deuce with back-to-back quick opens from Shin Shin-ho.
At 26-27, Hong Min-ki’s quick open tied the score again, and at 27-28, Ha Hyun-yong’s fastball tied the game. Park Sung-jin followed up with an open attack and blocked an attack from Takahiko Imamura to complete the comeback.
With the momentum on their side, Samsung Fire took the fourth set.
After a late attack by Kim Jung-ho at 16-14 and back-to-back service aces by Park Sung-jin, Samsung Chemical fought off Panasonic’s charge and scored the 25th point at 24-23 on a Kim Jun-woo kill.
It was only at the end of the fifth set that the match heated up.
After a seesaw game, Panasonic was on match point at 13-13 with an open attack from Tarumi. Kenyu Nakamoto made an open attack through Kim Jun-woo’s block to end the long match.
Earlier in the day, Hyundai Capital defeated KEPCO in straight sets 3-1 (25-20 18-25 25-22 25-22) in the third match of the Men’s Group B Preliminary Round.
Both HMC and KEPCO had already lost two games in the tournament and were out of the semifinals.
However, Hyundai Capital won the final match of the day and finished third in the group with a 1-2 record. KEPCO finished in last place after losing all three games.
Hyundai Capital’s Lee Seung-jun led the way with 28 points, while Kim Sun-ho added 13 points.
KEPCO’s Lee Tae-ho contributed 31 points, the most of any player on either side, but his head was down in defeat.
Hyundai Capital took the first set.
At 12-8, Lee Seung-jun’s quick opener and Park Sang-ha’s back-to-back blocks gave HMC the lead, which they extended to 18-12 with Ham Hyung-jin’s block.
After dedicating the first set, KEPCO turned the tide with Lee Tae-ho, who scored nine points in the second set alone.
Lee took the lead with an open attack at 16-16 and followed it up with a service ace at 19-17.
Hyundai Capital took the third set in a tightly contested affair.
At 20-20, Hyundai Capital scored a point when Jung Sung-hwan’s serve went out of play and took the lead at 21-21 on a Lee Tae-ho service error. At 22-22, Jung Tae-joon’s fastball was followed by Lee Seung-joon’s open attack to close out the third set.
Hyundai Capital took control of the fourth set.
At 22-22, Jung Tae-joon blocked Lee Tae-ho’s quick opener to take the lead. Ham Hyung-jin then blocked Kang Woo-sung’s follow-up attack to reach set point.
KEPCO tried to make a final comeback, but an unforced error cost them the match. 토토사이트