LONDON (Yonhap News) ― Having routinely beaten the odds when faced with adversity, the South Korean women’s handball team is poised to make more Olympic drama in London.

On Tuesday, South Korea nipped past Russia 24-23 in the quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal date Thursday with Norway.

That South Korea, the only Asian nation among the dozen in the tournament, has come this far is a surprise in itself.

In Group B, South Korea was paired with Norway, France, Spain and Denmark, who, in order, finished first through fourth at last year’s world championships. Smallish in stature and short on experience as a team in midst of a transition, South Korea, which ranked 11th at the same world championships, was widely seen as a heavy underdog in that group.

But the feisty, pesky bunch beat Spain and Denmark, while drawing Norway and losing to France. Then came the win over Russia.

The telling moment happened in the dying seconds of the match, when South Korea blocked the game’s final shot by Victoria Zhilinskayte, the tallest player on either team at 190 centimeters, 10 cm taller than anyone on the South Korean side.

South Korea has been a perennial overachiever in women’s handball. It has now reached the semifinals in eighth straight Olympics. It has come away with a medal in six of the past seven games, and sits one win away from making it seven of the past eight.

Players have often compensated for their lack of size with girt, endurance and flair for the dramatic ― so much so that the undersized team’s run to the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics became the subject of a hit local film, titled “Forever the Moment.”

This year’s team, featuring a handful of players still in their 20s, doesn’t quite have the poignant stories of the 2004 squad that had players juggling family and Olympic training, and others who came out of retirement because the team needed a few extra bodies.

But the London unit has been no less remarkable in its run to the semis.

Before the Olympics, head coach Kang Jae-won and players talked about the need to rely on their speed against bigger and stronger European players. Run them into the ground, their logic went, and the South Koreans would have enough endurance and smarts to win games.

South Korea, however, has actually played a physical style.

Players haven’t much tried to run around the towering opponents playing zone defense. They have been throwing their bodies into the wall instead, making short passes in tight space up the middle rather than relying on their wingers to create chances.