OK Financial Group’s men’s professional volleyball team picked up a comfortable win and three points at home. OK Financial Group won the home match of the 2023-24 Dodram V League against KB Insurance 3-1 in straight sets at Ansan Sangryoksu Gymnasium on Monday.
With the win, OK Financial Group continued its upward trend with its second consecutive victory and improved to 8W4L21, dropping Samsung Fire to fourth place and moving up to third. However, OK Financial Group head coach Masa Ogino was not satisfied with the result.
Ogino is not one to mince words when speaking to reporters on the field. He is more of a straight talker. This day was no different.
“After taking sets one and two in a row, I told the players during court changes, ‘Volleyball is a set sport.’ But we often played poorly in the third and fourth sets. This is something we need to reflect on.”
Shin Shin-jin, who scored a team-high and personal best 19 points in his V-League debut, also said, “I’m glad we won, but I’m disappointed that we let our guard down in the third set. I think that’s the wrong part.” “Still, I’m satisfied that I was able to relieve Leo (Cuba) of his offensive burden,” he added.
One of the reasons why OK Financial Group lost the third set to KB Insurance was due to the mismatch between Leo “The Cannon” and setter Lee Min-gyu, who replaced Kwak Myung-woo. This is something that former coach Seok Jin-wook, who took the helm of the team before Ogino, also struggled with.
When asked if Lee Min-kyu and Leo are not getting along well, Ogino said, “(Lee) is trying to get used to the game a little bit,” but added, “If you look at today’s (29th) game, the height of the pass (toss) was low, and he was a little slow to get under the ball (to send the pass) when the serve was shaky. But I think it’s not just Leo, it’s other players as well.”
“We need a passing height according to the attacker’s tendencies, and we need to play to Min-gyu’s strengths,” he added. Like Seok, Ogino can’t leave the setter position to Kwak Myung-woo alone.
They need to get Min-gyu back on track, both as a starter and as a backup, so that they can have more room to maneuver, including utilizing their setter.