“The No. 1 tryout made it rather difficult.”
Eddie and Bayarsaihan, the Mongolian duo, received the most attention at the 2023-2024 V-League Asia Quarter Triout held on Jeju Island from April 25 to 27. Unlike other participants, the two players went through Korea’s high school and university. The two players who left their native Mongolia and entered Korea in 2017 graduated from Suncheon Jeil High School, while Eddie went to Sungkyunkwan University and Bayarsaihan went to Inha University to learn volleyball. Clubs were fascinated by their ability to speak Korean thanks to their high-class skills on the university stage and their long life in Korea.
At a tryout on Apr. 27, Eddie was named the No. 1 overall pick by Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance. The relationship gained more attention because Kim Sang-woo, the head coach of Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance, was a teacher who coached Eddie when he was a coach at Sungkyunkwan University. Bayarsaihan will be wearing OK Financial Group’s uniform as the No. 4 pick.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance also won the first overall nomination in the foreign player tryout held in Turkiye in early May last year and chose Yosvani Hernandez (Cuba), a V-League career position. 토토사이트 순위
Coach Kim Sang-woo, who has brought in two players who will significantly boost his offense by securing the top pick for both the Asian quarter and foreign players, drew a picture of utilizing both players while planning this season. The picture was to maximize his offense by using Eddie, who has played as an apostrophe spiker since his college days, as his right side and Yosvani, who can play with both left and right wings, as Kim Jung-ho’s outside heater partner.
Eddie was used as an apogit spiker in the game against Woori Card on October 15 last year, the first game of the 2023-2024 season for Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance, but he has rarely been used as an apogit since then. He played as a top-class apogit on the college stage, but his efficiency was not very high in the V-League. When Yosvani played as an outside heater and could not play his part in the attack, manager Kim Sang-woo made a decision. He decided to turn Eddie into a middle blocker and use Yosvani as an apogit to maximize his attack power.
The tactic to force Yosvani to attack worked early in the season. After finishing with five wins and one loss in the first round, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance slowed down to three wins and three losses in the second round, but it also won five wins and one loss in the third round. Until the half of the season, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance was in the lead with 13 wins and five losses, and it seemed that it was finally playing spring volleyball, which had lost its reputation since the 2017-2018 season.
However, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance suffered two wins and four losses in both the fourth and fifth rounds, gradually falling into the lower ranks. As dependence on Yosvani increased too much, his overall performance of the team depended on his condition. As Yosvani was not the type of foreign player responsible for nearly half of his team’s offense when he was playing in the V-League in the past, Yosvani’s stamina was also depleted.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance’s once-leading ranking fell to the fifth place ahead of its sixth-round showdown with OK Financial Group held at Sangnoksu Gymnasium in Ansan on Thursday. If the team loses to OK Financial Group, which is the third place, it would be far from the third place, which is the Maginot Line to advance to spring volleyball, and the fourth place with a gap of less than three points.
Manager Kim Sang-woo brought up a new measure from a desperate crisis. He brought up the drawing he had before the season in the sixth round. Although he lost 2-3 in the match against KB Insurance on April 29, he had fun by using Eddie as an apogit spiker in the fourth and fifth sets.
Manager Kim Sang-woo’s strategy of using Eddie as an apogit spy to ease the burden of attacking Yosvani worked well. Eddie, who was used to play in the position he was most familiar with in college, showed off his attacking instinct differently from when he played for middle blockers.
The success rate of potential quick openers was 69.23 percent (9/13) and 58.33 percent (7/12) respectively. Two-stage openers also complied with the score at 46.15 percent (6/13). Eddie contributed the most to his team’s offense by scoring 25 points (57.89 percent) including three serve points.
Yosvani’s attack success rate was only 42.86 percent. If Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance had a success rate of Yosvani’s attack, they would have been completely defeated. However, Eddie and Yosvani evenly shared attack shares in the mid-30 percent range, reducing the risk. Although the attack success rate was low, Yosvani firmly supported Eddie by scoring 21 points on his serve, which is his specialty.
As the pre-season plan was finally realized at the end of the season, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance defeated OK Financial Group 3-1 (25-19 27-25 16-25 25-20). Adding three points, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (48 points, 18 wins and 15 losses) advanced to the fourth place, beating over KEPCO (47 points, 16 wins and 17 losses) to the fifth place. The team also broke its five-year losing streak at away games in Ansan since March 5, 2019. It was its first win at away games in 1825 days. The team also reduced its gap with the third-place OK Financial Group (52 points, 18 wins and 15 losses) to four, allowing it to advance to the semi-playoffs depending on the results of the remaining three games.
After the game, head coach Kim Sang-woo was also satisfied with Apogit Spiker Eddie. “Eddie is originally an Apogit Spiker. Originally, I had high expectations with Apogit, but there was a limit to the technique and Yosvani’s receiving burden went up, so I hesitated. I’ve tried this lineup a few times, but it’s the first well-implemented game,” he explained. “There are three games left. I didn’t want to end it like this, whether I played spring volleyball or not ahead of today’s game. I think the players’ motivation was greater than me. If heaven helps me, I’ll do my best for the remaining three games.”
After the interview, Eddie visited the interview room with setter Lee Jae-hyun. “I was appointed as an apogit for the first time in a long time. I was able to play a good game today because I got along well with Jae-hyun,” Eddie praised his junior.
Was it because he trained so well with Apogit even though he was appointed as an Apogit player after a long hiatus? Eddie’s answer was no. “I recently trained again with Apogit. When I was a middle blocker, I trained mainly with middle blockers,” he said. His main position was Apogit, which means that he performed well on the day.
Eddie was able to score as many as three serves on the day thanks to his apogit play, he said. “When I was a middle blocker, I played with only three potentials, but when I was on the bench at the back, I felt a bit heavy when hitting the serve. After a long time, I played both front and back and took many attacks, and I feel like my shoulders are getting warmer. I think that’s why his serve was sharper.”
He was honored when he was named No. 1 in the Asian quarter, but he felt pressured in the middle of the season. He couldn’t show 100% of his skills with a middle blocker that wasn’t his clothes. “It was rather difficult to be No. 1. I wanted to help the team somehow, but I felt a lot of pressure and stress,” Eddie said.
Compared to Eddie, who was in and out of the court and warm-up zone, Bayarsaihan of OK Financial Group was also envious of Eddie for his solid position as a middle blocker. Eddie said, “I was jealous to see him play well as a main player. When he wasn’t close to our team, he cheered for them to do well. Still, we wanted to win today’s face-off, but that’s what happened.”
Will Eddie get a chance at Apogit in the next game? What is clear is that the right side is the one that can revive Eddie’s capabilities. “We still have three more games to play. I will do everything I can, whether I play Apogit or Middle Blocker in the remaining games,” Eddie said.
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