‘Excitement’ explodes… This season is also the Kim Yeon-kyung era
Even though he thinks about retirement every year, his skills remain the same. Kim Yeon-kyung (36), who extended her career as a professional volleyball player for Heungkuk Life Insurance for another season, is showing off her performance from the beginning.
Heungkuk Life Insurance, which is considered a strong candidate for the championship this season, finished all six games of the first round of the 2024-2025 V-League with all wins. Heungkuk Life Insurance is the only one to win in the first round for both men and women. Marcello Abondanza’s decision to make an unconventional change by replacing five of the seven starting players is paying off. Newly introduced setter Lee Go-eun and libero Shin Yeon-kyung are playing their roles, and foreign players (Tutku Bourges Yuzgenk) and Asian quarter players (Anilis Fitch) are also showing great firepower.
The reason the team is able to make such drastic changes is because of Kim Yeon-kyung. Heungkuk Life Insurance is mentioned as a candidate for the championship every season, thanks to his unwavering performance in attack and defense as well as more than one foreign player. On the 12th, Kim Yeon-kyung received 22 out of 31 votes from the press corps and was selected as the first round MVP. He was also the only domestic player to receive votes during the selection process. Kim Yeon-kyung increased the record for the most awards for best player of the round to 12, including three monthly best player awards.
Even though she is in her mid-30s, Kim Yeon-kyung is performing at the top level in both attack and defense. It ranks first in attack success rate (45.68%), open (42.71%), and quick open (51.35%). His score of 118 points is also the highest among domestic players. In the defensive category, receiving efficiency ranked second with 42.86%, showing a receiving ability that was ahead of each team’s defensive specialist libero.
Although he is complaining of physical strain to the extent that he mentioned retirement at the end of last season, there are no fluctuations in his skills. The attack success rate for the last three seasons, starting from the 2020-2021 season, is 44.98-45.92%, which is not much different from his career attack success rate (45.05%). During the same period, receiving efficiency showed a steady trend of 34.60% → 46.80% → 42.46%. The saying that when Kim Yeon-kyung falters, Heungkuk Life Insurance also falters is proven by her consistency.
But it was far from winning. Among the women’s players, she was the only one to advance to the championship game in every season, but she always fell short of winning. Although the team returned to the domestic stage wearing the Heungkuk Life Insurance uniform from the 2020-2021 season, the team met GS Caltex in 2020-2021, Korea Expressway Corporation in 2022-2023, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction in 2023-2024 in the championship match and only finished in second place. He has postponed his retirement with the sole intention of winning at Heungkuk Life Insurance.
Reporter Jang Pil-su feel@hani.co.kr
