On the 12th, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate announced on its official SNS that it had recruited Go Min-ji, an outside heater and libero who had been active at KGC Ginseng Corporation until the 2022-2023 season, as an unconditional trade. The official announcement was made on the 12th, but it is known that the two clubs have already reached an agreement on the trade of Go Min-ji on the 8th. The Hyundai E&C club said it expects the newly recruited Go Min-ji to play a big role in serving and defending.
Go Min-ji, who was selected as the 5th overall pick in the 2016 rookie draft and joined IBK Industrial Bank Altos, transferred to Ginseng Corporation during the 3:2 trade between IBK and Ginseng Corporation in December 2017 and has been playing for 6 seasons until the 2022-2023 season. was active On this day, Ko Min-ji announced his transfer through personal SNS and expressed his determination to “do my best to do well in the new team without forgetting the hearts of Ginseng Corporation fans.”
▲ On the 12th, Hyundai E&C officially announced the news that it had hired Go Min-ji from Ginseng Corporation.
ⓒ Hyundai E&C Hillstate
Hyundai E&C’s last two seasons, which were full of regrets,
Hyundai E&C failed to achieve its dream of winning as the season ended early due to a surge in corona19 confirmed cases even after achieving an overwhelming record of 28 wins and 3 losses in 31 regular league games in the 2021-2022 season. Hyundai E&C experienced the bad luck of ending the season early when it was running first in the regular league twice following the 2019-2020 season, when the first corona19 confirmed cases began to occur. As the season unfortunately ended early, Hyundai E&C’s desire to win was bound to grow.
In the 2022-2023 season, Hyundai E&C also had an overwhelming start to the season, recording 15 consecutive wins. Amid the stable operation of setter Kim Da-in, who is in her third full-time starting season, Yasmin Bedart, a foreign player who is in her second year in Korea, was still powerful in attack, and Yang Hyo-jin and Lee Da-hyun, the ‘strongest middle blocker duo’, were as solid as ever. In addition, the outside hitter position, where the three players organically rotated, also had no leaks.
Hyundai E&C is centered on captain Hwang Min-kyung (Industrial Bank of Korea), who has been active in Hyundai E&C for the 6th season, and rookie striker Jung Ji-yoon, who has been recognized by Kim Yeon-kyung (Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders), who is the “Volleyball Empress”, and Go Ye-rim, who has excellent offensive and defensive balance, alternately left kept Hwang Min-kyung and Go Ye-rim were put on the court when a stable defense and serve-receive were needed, and Jung Ji-yoon appeared on the court and changed the atmosphere of the game with a strong attack when it was necessary to free the way from the attack.
However, Hyundai E&C, which seemed to have booked the regular league championship early, began to falter after the injury of foreign player Yasmin, and in the second half of the season, as the nucleus of defense, Kim Yeon-gyeon Libero, was injured, the days of losing began to increase more and more than the days of winning. In the end, Hyundai E&C, whose upward trend was broken, gave Heungkuk Life Insurance the top spot in the regular league at the end of the season, and in the playoffs, it was defeated in a row by Korea Expressway Corporation High Pass, completing the spring volleyball schedule in just two games.
After the season, Hyundai E&C jumped into the free agency market to recruit Kim Yeon-kyung, but Kim Yeon-kyung stayed with Heungkuk Life Insurance and failed to achieve results, and to make matters worse, captain Hwang Min-kyung obtained FA qualification and left the team. On top of this, Hyundai E&C, where it was unclear whether backup libero Kim Joo-ha would continue his career as a player, lacked a backup libero and outside hitter with good defense. did.토토사이트
‘Backup Libero’ Go Min-ji, is it possible to be an outside heater?
▲ Go Min-ji, who played an active role as a backup for Yellow Libero at Ginseng Corporation, is highly likely to play an active role as a backup for Kim Yeon-gyeon Libero at Hyundai E&C.
ⓒ Korea Volleyball Federation
Go Min-ji, who graduated from Daegu Girls’ High School, showed her outstanding talent in defense early enough to play as a libero in the youth national team. He joined IBK with the 5th overall pick in the 2016 draft, but transferred to Ginseng Corporation through a trade after one season, and spent most of his professional life at Ginseng Corporation. Go Min-ji scored 96 points in 15 games in the 2017-2018 season and 92 points in 13 games in the 2019-2020 season.
However, through the rookie draft, Ginseng Corporation nominated tall striker prospects such as Ji Min-gyeong (Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers), Na Hyun-soo (Hyundai E&C), Go Eui-jeong, Jeong Ho-young, and Lee Seon-woo in turn. In addition, in 2021, with the recruitment of Lee So-young as a free agent and Park Hye-min as a trade, Go Min-ji’s position as a striker was bound to become smaller and smaller. The chronic knee injury that constantly bothered Ko Min-ji was also a factor hindering Ko Min-ji’s growth as an outside hitter.
Go Min-ji, who had more periods of absence due to injury until the 2021-2022 season, transformed into a libero for the 2022-2023 season as the main Libero Nolan was injured, and was responsible for the defense of Ginseng Corporation along with newcomer Choi Hyo-seo until the Nolan Libero returned. Ko Min-ji was not a player who played as a professional libero, but showed some ups and downs in each game, but he played in 22 games in the 2022-2023 season and showed a decent performance with a receiving efficiency of 40.52% and 3.09 digs per set.
Koh Min-ji, who played an active role as a backup for Yellow Libero at Ginseng Corporation, is highly likely to serve as a backup for Kim Yeon-gyeon Libero, who signed a free agent contract with Hyundai E&C for a total of 1.05 billion won over 3 years in April at Hyundai E&C. However, as Hyundai E&C has a significant shortage of outside heater resources with good defense due to Hwang Min-kyung’s transfer and Go Ye-rim’s surgery, the possibility of playing as an outside heater cannot be ruled out. It is expected that whether Go Min-ji will participate as an outside heater will be determined depending on the health of his knee.
Meanwhile, Ginseng Corp.’s captain Lee So-young underwent shoulder surgery and was certain to miss early next season, and the contract renewal with foreign player Elisabeth Ine Barga was canceled. In particular, in the libero position, maintaining the health of the yellow libero, who struggled with injuries in the 2022-2023 season, became more important, and the growth of Choi Hyo-seo, who was selected as the first female libero rookie king in the 2022-2023 season, became essential.