Go to contents

Women’s Volleyball Teams Prefer Beauty

Posted January. 26, 2007 06:27,   

Women’s Volleyball Teams Prefer Beauty

Miss Puerto Rico 2007 Wilma Blasini, listed as one of the most searched names on main Internet portal sites all over the world at the beginning of this year, was a player on the Puerto Rico national women’s volleyball team three years ago.

We also have a beauty who used to be a volleyball player. Han Ji-yeon, 24, a former volleyball player for the national junior volleyball team and Ewha Women’s University varsity team, entered the world of entertainment after she became popular and the most-searched name on Korean portal sites.

New women volleyball players from overseas in the 2006-2007 season of Korean women’s volleyball are all “glamorous” and are expected to attract a crowd to the courts.

However, the midterm evaluation of these foreigners is mostly “pretty, but not very good.”

In men’s volleyball, foreigners have played two seasons and have been ranked on top, including Sean Rooney of Hyundai Capital, who won the MVP in the regular season and in the championship playoffs in his first year in Korea, Bobby of Korean Air, a former player for the world class Brazilian national volleyball team, and Leandro Da Silva of Samsung Insurance, a former Brazilian professional league player. Foreign players are ranked in the top three in points: Bobby (284 points), Leandro (273 points) and Rooney (220 points).

However, the situation is different in women’s volleyball.

Kim Yeon-kyeong of Hungkuk Life, ranked at the top in seven attack areas last season, is number one in total attack percentage (44.28 percent), points (274), openers (40.16 percent), movement (56.66 percent), and double quick hits (52.43 percent).

How are foreign women players playing? Except for Wilkins of Hungkuk Life, who is ranked number one in serving aces (0.309 per set), and Rachel of Korea Highway Corporation, who is number one in backcourt attacks (109 points), most of them are not playing very well. KT&G’s “beauty queen” Luciana returned to Brazil after suffering a knee injury during a game on January 7. KT&G was criticized for signing an injured player just because she had the name of a “Brazilian national team player.”

As for the foreign women players’ poor performance, KBS volleyball commentator Lee Se-ho said, “You are expecting too much if you want to see players, who at most are receiving $150,000, perform magnificently in the Korean women’s volleyball league, whose world ranking is ninth.”



jeon@donga.com