Kyle Russell nails eight aces in a row!

Kyle Russell nailed eight aces in a row in a V-League game in South Korea on Thursday. The American international produced a total of 11 direct serving points towards a match tally of 38 points as his club team, Samsung Bluefangs Daejeon, claimed a four-set victory over Suwon KEPCO Vixtorm at home.

In the second set of the match, the 2.05m-tall opposite scored as many as eight consecutive points directly from the serving line, an all-time record in the South Korean league, and widened the gap from 12-8 to 20-8. Playing against his previous club, the 28-year-old athlete, a 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League silver medallist, piled up 23 spiking points (at a 53.5% success rate in attack), four kill blocks and 11 aces towards a 3-1 (25-20, 25-11, 16-25, 25-23) win. It was the Bluefangs’ 12th in 26 regular season matches played.

The victory helped the team from Daejeon step upwards from the bottom of the table. They are currently sixth on 35 points, 15 away from leaders Incheon Korean Air Jumbos.

Russell, who was the league’s best server in the 2020-2021 season, is now second in that ranking for the current season with an average of 0.79 aces per set. He is also the second best scorer of the V-League on a total of 749 points. In both charts, the leader is Mali’s Noumory Keita of Uijeongbu KB Insurance Stars.