History Sides with Megawati Hangestri and Red Sparks

SUWON, WEDNESDAY — Every win is valuable, especially in the playoff phase of the South Korean Volleyball League. Victory is not only capital for the next match, but also makes history will side with the winner. Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi and Daejeon Jung Kwan Jang Red Sparks are on top thanks to their success in the first match of the playoff phase.

The Red Sparks, strengthened by Indonesian volleyball player Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi, defeated Suwon Hyundai E&C Hillstate at the Suwon Gymnasium, South Korea, Tuesday (3/25/2025). In the first match of the 2024-2025 Volleyball League playoffs, Megawati and her friends won 3-0 (26-24, 25-23, 25-19) over the defending champions.

The victory over Hillstate has given Red Sparks a significant opportunity to advance to the final round. Moreover, in the second meeting on Thursday (27/5/2025), Megawati and her team will perform in front of their own audience in Daejeon. They have gained a boost in confidence from the result of the first match as well as from the support of the spectators.

The playoff phase of the Korean Volleyball League is played in a best-of-three format. If a team wins two matches, they will advance to the championship match or the final round against the top of the standings.

This season, Red Sparks and Hillstate advanced to the playoffs as the third and second place finishers. They must face each other to compete for a ticket to the finals against Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders who came out as the number one ranked team. If both teams defeat each other in two matches, then there must be a third match as a decider.

The victory over Hillstate in the first match also made history in favor of the team coached by Ko Hee-jin. In the history of the Korean Volleyball League women's category, the team that won the first match in the last 18 playoffs has always successfully advanced to the final round.

Last season, Megawati and Red Sparks faced that probability after losing their opening match. They, who at the time were also playing their first game away from home, were defeated 1-3 (25-22, 13-25, 23-25, 23-25) by Pink Spiders.

Red Sparks briefly raised hopes by forcing a third match after winning their home game against Pink Spiders, 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 25-15). However, Red Sparks were defeated again in the third match, 0-3 (18-25, 19-25, 19-25). As a result, Pink Spiders, who dominated the first match, earned the right to advance to the final round.

The Red Sparks' failure to advance to the final adds to their poor record in the playoffs. In their previous seven appearances at this stage, they have only made it to the final twice.

In fact, the Red Sparks' five previous failures occurred when they qualified for the playoffs as the third-place team in the regular season standings. That happened in the 2005-2006, 2013-2014, and 2016-2017 Korean Volleyball League seasons. This means that the Red Sparks have a bad record of never advancing to the finals when playing as the third-place team.

However, the failure did not erase the brilliance of Megawati and the Red Sparks in the Korean Volleyball League last season. Moreover, the Red Sparks ended their seven-year playoff drought.

This season, Megawati again played a key role in the Red Sparks' success in advancing to the playoffs. In the victory over Hillstate, Megawati also played a big part by scoring 24 points for the Red Sparks.

Megawati's contribution was the highest among her teammates and also the highest in the match. The player from Jember, East Java, outperformed Hillstate's foreign player, Laetitia Moma Bassoko, who contributed 23 points.

Megawati managed to play comfortably after her foreign duet partner, Vanja Bukilic, returned to play after recovering from injury. Bukilic, who had been out since late February with a left ankle injury, scored 11 points for the Red Sparks.

The positive start of the Red Sparks, driven by Megawati's impressive performance, brought the player closer to his determination since the beginning of the season. The player nicknamed "Megatron" by fans is determined to perform better this season, especially since he no longer needs to adapt.

In fact, Megawati is determined to overcome all challenges if at any time she experiences a decline in performance. That determination is also manifested in Megawati's brilliant statistics, including being the player with the highest attack success rate (48.06 percent) and ranking third in the list of highest scorers with 802 points.

"To be champions, we don't have to be at the top right away. We have to go through the stairs that are in front first, but I hope we can rise higher," Megawati was quoted as saying by South Korean media, KBS.

Meanwhile, Red Sparks coach Ko Hee-jin is determined to win the second match so that their struggle in the playoff phase is over. That way, there will be no need for a third match to determine which team advances to the final.

"In this match, our block was not good in open attack situations so that the opponent could steal points. However, I think we can show a better game in the next meeting if we improve that part," said Ko Hee-jin evaluating the performance of his players, quoted from South Korean media, The Spike.