Yellow Card Ends Volleyball Game

In many sports, a yellow card represents a warning and a red card represents ejection from the game.

Therefore, a yellow card is better than a red. Sometimes, however, a red card can be better.

On February 21, a commotion over the color of a card shook Olympic Park Gymnasium #2 in Seoul, where a pro volleyball match between the top two teams, Hung Kuk Life Insurance and Korea Highway Corporation, was in progress.

With the score tied at 14-14 in the final set, Kim Yeon-kyeong of Hung Kuk made a hard spike into Korea Highway’s court. The attack was successful, but chief referee Choi Jeong-soon ruled that Kim’s foot stepped over the center line, and as a consequence, Korea Highway gained an extra point.

Kim protested strongly, tearfully shaking the net until Choi issued a yellow card as a warning. The problem lay in the fact that a yellow card in volleyball results in a one-point deduction. With the score at 16-14, it looked as though Korea Highway would win the game. Realizing the result of her decision, Choi cancelled the yellow card, instead issuing a red card. A red card in volleyball results in ejection from the game for the remainder of the set with no points being deducted.

The reversal by Choi led to a protest from the Hung Kuk Life team, who claimed, “The referee ended the game. Why did she call us back?” The game was resumed at 15-14, after a ten-minute dispute, and saw Kim Mi-jin of Korea Highway block a Wilkins spike to win the game at 3-2 (19-25, 28-26, 23-25, 25-23, 16-14), ending Hung Kuk Life’s 11 game winning streak.

“Today’s game was the best women’s game of this season,” said Hung Kuk coach, Hwang Yeon-joo.

The season’s best game, however, was marred by Kim’s excessive protest and referee Choi’s indecisive ruling.

uni@donga.com