GS Caltex, the women's team in the V League, has entered the rebuild. The starting point is to reinforce the young middle blocker (center).

GS Caltex recruited Choi Ga-eun (23) and Seo Chae-won (21) as compensation players for outfielder Kang So-hwi (27, Korea Expressway Corporation) and Libero Han Da-hye (29, Pepper Savings Bank), who left the team as free agents on the 20th. Everyone is a young middle blocker who looks forward to tomorrow.

Choi Ga-eun started her professional career at IBK Industrial Bank of Korea and was selected as the fifth pick in the first round of the rookie draft for the 2019-2020 season. Ahead of the 2021-2022 season, she changed her uniform as a special pick for the upstart team, Pepper Savings Bank, and showed her potential by ranking 10th in blocking in the 2022-2023 season. Last season, she joined the Korea Expressway Corporation team in a trade with setter Lee Go-eun and moved her nest after a year.

Seo joined Pepper Savings Bank as the third pick in the first round of the rookie draft for the 2021-2022 season, gaining experience by steadily being recruited. Seo and Choi performed well together for two seasons.

It is a bold decision by Lee Young-taek, who took over as the new coach of GS Caltex after Cha Sang-hyun, who led the team for eight years, stepped down. Lee raised Park Eun-jin (25) and Jung Ho-young (23), who became national team players when he was appointed as the head coach of KGC Ginseng Corporation (currently the head of the association), and Choi Jeong-min (22) was promoted to No. 1 in the league as the head coach of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea last season. "We selected young and promising players for the future of our team. We saw high potential for growth," Lee said, adding, "If we nurture them systematically, they will be able to serve as strong support for GS Caltex."

Heungkuk Life Insurance has also strengthened its middle blocker. It said on Monday that Lim Hye-rim (20) has been appointed as a compensator for Lee Ju-ah (24) of the FA who left for IBK Industrial Bank. For Lim, this is a return to her former team a year after leaving Heungkuk Life Insurance as a free agent compensator for veteran Kim Soo-ji and moving to IBK Industrial Bank.

Lim Hye-rim was recognized for her potential to join Heungkuk Life Insurance as the second choice in the first round of the rookie draft for the 2022-2023 season. Her strengths include her high blocking and bouncy jumps, which come from her 184-cm tall height.

However, looking at the overall power reinforcement flow, GS Caltex is focusing on gradual growth, while Heungkuk Life Insurance, which has won the second place in the championship game for the last two consecutive years, is focusing more on today. In particular, Heungkuk Life Insurance is relatively short of room as it enters its third winning project with Kim Yeon-kyung (36), the "Volleyball Empress," who is expected to retire.

Heungkuk Life Insurance recruited Choi Eun-ji  , a senior outfielder who played for GS Caltex last season, but GS Caltex filled the gap in wing attack caused by Kang So-hwi's transfer with Kim Joo-hyang (25), a young free agent at Hyundai Engineering & Construction. A similar trend is expected to be maintained in the reinforcement work through the Asian quarter tryout scheduled for Jeju Island at the end of this month and the foreign player tryout scheduled for the United Arab Emirates in May.