Megawati Hangestri's "Life-Extending" Art Revives Champion Hopes

DAEJEON, FRIDAY - After losing the first two matches and trailing by two sets in the third match, Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi and Daejeon Jung Kwan Jang Red Sparks refused to give up. Megawati Hangestri successfully "kept the team alive" with an impressive performance, reigniting their championship hopes.

Like when winning a ticket to the final round in the playoff match at the end of March, Megawati Hangestri prostrated herself in gratitude on the field. The hard hit by the player nicknamed "Megatron" by fans resulted in a point and ensured the Red Sparks' victory over the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders, Friday (4/4/2025).

Megawati expressed her gratitude for the 3-2 victory (21-25, 34-36, 25-22, 25-19, 15-11) in the third match of the 2024-2025 South Korea Volleyball League final. Understandably, the victory at Chungmu Gymnasium, Daejeon, brought the current final series score to 2-1 in favor of the Pink Spiders.

With a best-of-five format in the final round, the team that emerges as champion is the team that first wins three matches out of a total of five matches. The Pink Spiders already have a capital of two wins in the first two matches. They only need one more win to win the trophy.

However, Red Sparks thwarted Pink Spiders' efforts to claim the championship title by winning three consecutive matches. Megawati Hangestri extended Red Sparks' chances in the final round and reignited hopes of securing the championship title.

Thus, Megawati and her teammates celebrated their victory over Pink Spiders in the match as if they had won a championship title. This demonstrates how much the victory meant to Red Sparks.

Moreover, unlike the second match where Red Sparks initially took the lead before the situation turned around, this time the home team struggled to secure the first two sets. In a fierce battle, Red Sparks had to concede to the superiority of Pink Spiders.

Megawati and her team are on the brink of defeat. If they lose again, all hopes of claiming the championship title for the first time in 13 years will be dashed.

However, in the third set, Red Sparks managed to rise and turn the situation around. Megawati, who is the team's mainstay, played more calmly. Together with her fellow foreign teammate, Vanja Bukilic, Megawati shared the burden and roles to execute attacks.

Red Sparks coach Ko Hee-jin implemented various variations of attacks, including trying different placements for Bukilic. That made the Red Sparks' attacks difficult for opponents to anticipate.

Meanwhile, Megawati performed impressively, showing the art of “extending life” when the hopes of winning were on the line. The player from Jember, East Java, scored up to 40 points. Megawati’s number of points made her the top scorer of the match.

With 40 points, Megawati is approaching her personal scoring record for two seasons in the “Land of Ginseng”. Megawati's best record was 44 points when she defeated Altos IBK in January.

Not only the large number of points, Megawati's attack effectiveness was also high. Out of 81 attempted attacks, 38 of them resulted in points. This means that Megawati recorded a success rate of 46.91 percent. Megawati's other two points came from successfully blocking the ball.

Bukilic was no less brilliant, trailing Megawati in second place for the highest scorer in the match. His attack success rate reached 40.63 percent.

In the match that lasted for 2 hours and 34 minutes, Red Sparks were dominant in both attack and reception aspects. Red Sparks' attack rate reached 43.17 percent and reception of the ball 29.91 percent. They were superior to Pink Spiders with an attack effectiveness of 40.7 percent and reception of the ball 20.72 percent.

With this victory, Megawati and her friends revived their chances of winning the title. They must win again in the fourth match which will be held at home on Sunday (6/4/2025). Victory will force the final round to be held up to five matches.

Before the match, Ko Hee-jin dismissed all the pressure and burden his team had been carrying after losing two consecutive matches. The victory over the Pink Spiders embodied Ko Hee-jin's optimism, believing that his team could overcome the negative results in the first two matches.

Meanwhile, the defeat has made Pink Spiders haunted by bad memories of the final round two seasons ago. At that time, Pink Spiders won the first two matches against Gimcheon Korea Expressway Corporation Hi-pass. However, in the third to fifth matches, they lost.

"We were leading 2-0. It was a good situation. It's a shame we didn't win. There were times when we didn't handle the situation well. I think we need to prepare well for the fourth match," Pink Spiders coach Marcello Abondanz was quoted as saying by Korean media, MK Sports.

“Something went wrong since the second set. We didn’t show good volleyball. We should have tried harder when we were 2-0 up, but instead, our concentration dropped. The final match is a match that every team wants to win. We lost a lot of things. It’s a shame,” he said again.