Considered Korea’s best female volleyball player, Kim Yeon-koung recently retired from playing professional volleyball. Fans cheered as she finished her 20-year career with a storybook ending.

Kim was the star player of the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders, a top women’s team in the V-League, Korea’s professional volleyball league. This year, the Pink Spiders had the best record in the regular season and reached the finals in the postseason.

In the championship series, the Pink Spiders faced the Daejeon Jung Kwan Jang Red Sparks. The best-of-five series was tied 2-2, and the fifth and final game was held in Incheon on April 8th.

At the end of the hard-fought game, the Pink Spiders pulled off the win and claimed the championship title. Kim played a pivotal role for her team, scoring a team-high 34 points. As a result, she was named the MVP of the series.

The championship title was the perfect way for the 37-year-old veteran to cap off her illustrious career. Impressively, it was also her fifth V-League championship victory.

“I’m grateful to my teammates for helping me finish things in such an amazing way,” Kim said after the game.

Kim started playing volleyball as a fourth grader in elementary school. In 2004, she was selected for the national youth team as a second-year high school student. For the next 17 years, she played a key role for the national team in the Olympics and other international tournaments.

Along with success in the V-League, Kim also spent many years playing professional volleyball overseas, leading her teams to championship victories in Japan, Turkey, and China. She then returned to Korea in 2022 and rejoined the Pink Spiders, her first professional team.

To celebrate Kim’s achievements, Heungkuk Life announced that her jersey number 10 would be permanently retired.