Korean Air, Woori Card headed to championship game

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The top of the professional volleyball regular season has been outlined. Korean Air and Woori Card are the favorites for the men's title, while Hyundai E&C and Heungkuk Life will likely finish at least second.

Korean Air won the men's Dodram 2023-2024 V-League match against OK Financial Group 3-1 (25-18 25-13 21-25 25-23) in straight sets at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on Thursday.

With the three points, Korean Air moved to the top of the league (18-11, 56 points) after dropping Woori Card (19-9, 55 points). It was their fourth win in a row.

Despite dropping to second place, Woori Card is also in good form. Despite the injury absence of main gun Matej Kok, Woori Card has won four straight games and is closing in on the top spot.

Meanwhile, third-place OK Financial Group (15W13L, 44 points) failed to add to their points total with a loss to Korean Air, dropping their second straight game.

This widened the gap between second-place Woori Card and third-place OK Financial Group to 11 points. With eight regular season games remaining for both teams, OK Financial Group needs to win at least four more games than Woori Card to overtake them. Considering the content and atmosphere of both teams' matches, it is unlikely that the standings will change.

As a result, it is expected that Korean Air and Woori Card will battle for the top spot in the remaining regular season, which will take them directly to the championship match. Second place will have to go through a best-of-three playoff against third place, but first place will go straight to the championship and save their energy.

In the women's division, the first and second place teams will be decided early.

In the women's match on Thursday at the Gimcheon Indoor Gymnasium, Korea Expressway Corporation defeated GS Caltex 3-1 (25-16 20-25 25-18 25-22) in straight sets.

GS Caltex, the league's third-ranked team, failed to add any points and remained in a precarious third place (16 wins, 12 losses, 45 points). 

They trail fourth-place Jungkwanjang (14W14L, 44 points) by one point.

GS Caltex's second straight defeat makes its chances of overtaking second-place Heungkuk Sinsung in the remaining regular season even slimmer. First-place Hyundai E&C has 65 points, while second-place Heungkook Sinseng has 62 points and has already crossed the 60-point threshold.

Even if GS Caltex wins eight straight games by the end of the regular season, Heungkuk Saengsaeng only needs to win two or three of its remaining eight games to secure at least second place.

This means that the battle for first place between Hyundai E&C and Heungkuk Saengsaeng will be the biggest concern in the remaining women's games. Hyundai E&C, which went on a winning streak at the beginning of last season and topped the league before falling to second place after the injury to foreign player Yasmin, and Heungkuk Life, which went straight to the championship last season as the league's top team but failed to win the title after losing to Korea Expressway Corporation, are expected to fight to the end to secure the top spot.

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