*This content was translated by AI.
Hana Card Hana Pay became the first PBA team to win the title for the second time. It was a feat that was possible with MVP Kim Ga-young (43).
Hana Card lost Game 5 to SK Rent-a-Car Direct by a set score of 2-4, but won Game 6 by 4-1 (11-10, 1-9, 15-9, 9-2, 11-5) in the final of the "Welcome Savings Bank PBA Team League 2025-2026 Postseason" held at Goyang Kintex PBA Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on the 21st.
Hana Card rose to the throne of the team league once again after winning for the first time in the 2023-2024 season with 4 wins and 2 losses against the Champs.
He confirmed his advance to the playoffs early by winning the first round, but the process to the championship was quite difficult. In particular, he was sluggish with three wins and six losses in the fifth round, falling from first place in the regular league to third place and starting the postseason from the semi-playoff.
Hana Card, which defeated Crown Haitai Laon with 2 wins and 1 loss in the semi-playoff (best out of three), beat Welcome Savings Bank Welcome Phoenix with 3 wins and 1 loss in the playoff (best out of five).
The opponent is SK Rent-A-Car, the defending champion and Hana Card's rival. Although he won the first and second games, he lost the third game, and after winning the fourth game, he was in a bad mood after taking two sets first and losing in the fifth game, but Hana Card showed a high level of concentration.
Shin Jung-joo, who participated in the final for the first time in the men's doubles in the first set, succeeded in gaining the upper hand by beating Eddie Lefuns (Belgium) and Ngodinnai (Vietnam) by 11-10 (10 innings) in collaboration with Murat Najee Choclu (Turkiye).
In the second set, Kim Ga-young and Ayako Sakai of Japan were completely defeated by Kang Ji-eun and Hida Orie of Japan by 1-9 (5 innings), but Q. Nguyen of the third set beat Nguyen by 15-9 (5 innings) to make the set score 2-1. In the fourth set, Choclu and Sakai won 9-2 in two innings, leaving only one set to win.
Hana Card, which went out to end the game, was again joined by "ES" Cho Klu in the fifth set. From the first inning, he scored eight high runs and ran to 8-0. Conditional chasing was also not easy, but Cho Clue hit two runs in the second inning and left one run to win the championship. Cho Klu immediately succeeded in a deflected attack in the third inning, finishing 11-5 (3 innings). When the championship was confirmed, Choclu celebrated the victory by kissing Q, and Hana Card players rushed out and hugged Choclu.
The final MVP (prize money of 5 million won) was won by "Danggu Empress" Kim Ga-young. Kim Ga-young led Hana Card to victory with 6 wins, 3 losses and 1.278 average in this final.
It was a more valuable result to overcome the slump. Kim Ga-young, who lost three consecutive singles in the fourth round of the team league, experienced a shock elimination in the round of 64 of Harim LPBA Championship 2025 in November and lost all four in the fifth round. At the same time, the team also fell to third place. Crown Haitai and JunPO also lost to Lim Jung-sook and fell into a quagmire for nine consecutive losses in the team league singles, but later drew a surprising rebound.
Kim Ga-young, who also lost to Lim Jung-sook in a row in the semi-PO, combined with Sakai for 2-1 in doubles and had a 2-1 advantage over Welcome Savings Bank and Choi Hye-mi in PO. In particular, in the first and second games, he won all four games he played, giving the team an edge. He led Hana Card to victory with 6 wins and 3 losses in the championship including the singles.
According to the PBA, Kim Ga-young, who won the final MVP, said at a press conference after winning, "I think I gave it to him because I felt sorry for him (laughs). When I won the MVP award, my name was called, so I thought, "It's me?" and added, "The team members have been consistently good, and I think I gave it to them to mean that I've gone through the nine consecutive women's singles matches since the regular league."
Kim Ga-young, who did not cry even when she lost nine games in a row, shed tears after winning the championship. This is because Sakai, who worked together, declared goodbye to the PBA Tour as well as Hana Card after this season. I decided to leave to support my son who is preparing for college entrance, but I only informed him after the championship was confirmed because I was worried that the players would falter. Kim Ga-young said, "I was not aware of Sakai's decision. After the game, Kim Jin-ah cried a lot. I thought Kim Jin-ah was not able to play in the last final, so she shook off her mental troubles this time, but Sakai was also crying. Later, I learned that Sakai will leave the team from next season," he said.
In addition, Hana Card's leader Kim Byung-ho became the only three-time team league winner. Kim Byung-ho, a winning member of TS and JDX in the 2020-2021 season, later led Hana Card to the championship as the leader of the 2023-2024 season, and then lifted the trophy again this season. In particular, ahead of Game 6 of the Final, the order was drastically changed and the operation was properly hit.
Kim Byung-ho said, "There were many difficult moments from the fifth round to the postseason over the past 20 days, but I was able to get a valuable medal as my team members united and won the championship. I'm so grateful to my team members," he said.
After finishing the team league, PBA will hold the final regular tour of the 2025-2026 season "Welcome Savings Bank PBA-LPBA Championship" at the "Koyang KINTEX PBA Stadium" in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, for nine days from the 25th.
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*This content was translated by AI.
