Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2018-2019

Hitachi is entertaining. This "dude on the sidelines" should audition for a job as coach. His team is mostly young and short but he's got them playing with great spirit.

Let's mention #19 OH Miyu Kubota again. She's 171cm, swinging primarily from the right side so call her an OP. Her stats from Hitachi's first two games:

Attack - 22, 8, 1... 36.4% --- Receive - 27, 16, 3 ... 64.8% (only played sets 3,4,5)

Attack - 13,6,0 ... 46.2% --- Receive - 28, 15, 6 ... 64.3% (subbed in sets 2,3 . started sets 4,5)

Heryman is also MIA for Hitachi. Irisawa is doing pretty well in her absence.

Hitachi is going to lose, but as long as they play scrappy defense and look good I will enjoy them.

Denso's setter Kozue is new to the team this year. She's a lot better than the other alt-setter #6 Yuko Suzuki.

Game 2:

13:40 (JST) Toyota Body Queens v Kurobe AquaFairies

Toyota is playing at the top of the league starting this season, but I smell an upset. Kurobe plays good defense, they have solid reception across the board, Freya is immense, and they'd wear a win well.

Momoko Higane is back on court setting for Toyota

Kurobe takes the first set 25-20. Better watch out Toyota

This end of court camera gives new perspective to watching Neriman fly in from downtown. She's not having any of my upset theory. Watching the defenders anticipate where she's going to hit it, and then the ball comes at them so fast. They try.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 Day 4 Results

Denso:

Nabeya 17/43, 1 error 39.4% - Sinéad 9 blocks - Kudo got benched the last set after 8/30. They didn't look like they won. Sakamoto DNP

Hitachi:

#19 OP Miyu Kubota high scorer 20 points, 18/39, 1 block, 1 ace. Bring it on. Osanai struggles 14/53. They looked like they won the match. Watanabe, Heryman DNP.

Toyota v Kurobe: Match of the season so far. Toyota is playing well. Neriman, a little error prone--23/55 w/7 boo boos (7/13 w/4 from downtown)-- Araki 15/21. Kurobe is a quintessential Japanese team: solid reception, respectable serve, scrappy defense, good passing, trouble scoring/winning. OP Akane Ukashima 2/4 made a brief appearance. Going to be tough for her to crack the rotation, Team Captain #1 Saki Maruyama 11/26 is ahead of her. Their main weapons are OHs #3 Nanami Wasai 10/36 and #11 Rina Hiratani 11/44. Gotta do better than that. Freya 12/22, no blocks. She can/will score more than that if/when she gets in tune with the setter who's one of the fastest, lowest out there. #8 Mizuki Minami feeds her attackers well but they get blocked a lot Freya isn't as quick as her athletic build would suggest. She's a riot, though.

Imagine my pain if NEC didn't beat PFU 3-0. Yanagita played for Hirose. Hirose is non-receiving and NEC needs to up their reception level, but Hirose'd been their best scorer. It worked out, but NEC's scoring has been worse than their reception.

Standings 2018.11.12 -- after Week 2 (4 competition days)

Since I don't speak or read Japanese, and I don't play at all on Social Media, all these things remain a mystery to me. Ebata for PFU, Alhassan for NEC, Heryman for Hitachi. Ebata and Alhassan have been in street clothes in the stands so I imagine there is some minor injury. Or something

Highlights from Week 2

Sat 10 Nov 2018

Denso Airybees v Saitama Ageo Medics (3–0) (25–21, 25-22, 25–23) Stats

Toray Arrows v Okayama Seagulls (3–1) (25-14, 16-25, 25–23, 25–22) Stats

NEC Red Rockets v Toyota Body Queens (0–3) (17–25, 20–25, 18–25) Stats

PFU BlueCats v Kurobe AquaFairies (0–3) (18-25, 19-25, 28-30) Stats

JT Marvelous v Hisamitsu Springs (3–2) (25–20, 21-25, 14-25, 25-19, 15-10) Stats

Sun 11 Nov

Denso Airybees v Hitachi Rivale (3-1) (21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-16) Stats

Toyota Body Queens v Kurobe AquaFairies (3-1) (20-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-21) Stats

PFU BlueCats v NEC Red Rockets (0-3) (22-25, 20-25, 17-25) Stats

The highlight link is the score.

The 2nd post in this thread (the Schedule) is updated with scores, stats, and highlights as they become available. Bookmark that post for convenience.

Match of the Week:

Erika Araki was on fire. We only get one or two of her kills in the video but she had 15 beauties. Toyota's MBs were brutal. Aya Watanabe was 12/17. Also, notice Toyota #17 Miyoko Yabuta. She came in for the struggling Mami Uchiseto after the first set loss and finished the match. She was a miserable 3/19 but her reception was decent. She signed with Toyota mid-season last year. I think Mami might have some competition. I was impressed.

Lovely Goofball Toyota Setter Momoko Higane gets the post game blurb

The JT match was good, too:

Butt-Stalkin' videographer extraordinaire Pooshan1053 posted a short clip of PFU v Kurobe warmups and such. It's worth looking at the first few seconds to see Chatchu-on. She appears to look up at his camera and smile, the smile of an angel:

I hope he posts one of his full match edits of the thing. He's the only opportunity to see Japanese teams play in HD, beyond those little highlight reels the V.League posts on Vimeo.

For those keeping score at home, the V.League pushed back by an hour the first and last games of both days this upcoming weekend:

Sat 17 Nov 2018

12:00 Okayama Seagulls v PFU BlueCats

12:00 Toyota Body Queens v Hitachi Rivale

14:00 Saitama Ageo Medics v Hisamitsu Springs

14:30 JT Marvelous v Toray Arrows

15:00 Kurobe AquaFairies v NEC Red Rockets

Sun 18 Nov 2018

12:00 NEC Red Rockets v PFU BlueCats

12:00 Toyota Body Queens v Toray Arrows

15:00 Kurobe AquaFairies v Denso Airybees

15:00 JT Marvelous v Hitachi Rivale

I'm rooting for Kurobe AquaFairies over NEC on Saturday and Denso on Sunday.

This seems wrong to me:

It's from the V.League web site watching guide. Is this just referring to the original fake lineup of the first play of the game before the serve goes off and then everybody runs to where they want to be?

Google Translated Nonsense:

"Opposite translates directly, "opposite" means. This name was given because it is located on the diagonal (opposite side) of the setter. I do not serve receive specialized in attack, and always go back attack when I am in the back guard".

I have always wondered about the term "opposite". At first I thought it meant the opposite side of the court from where the camera is. LOL. But that only works for one of the teams.

That's from the V.League web site

Game 1b - Toyota Body Queens v Hitachi Rivale

Hitachi is playing with rookies and newcomers and took the first set 31-29 or something like that. No Watanabe, no Heryman, no Mabashi, no Haga, no Toi. It's really sad that Hisae Watanabe can't seem to stay healthy enough to play all the time. She's got a lot of upside. Or, I dunno what's going on with her.

Sat 17 Nov 2018 Day 5 Results

The Ageo/Hisamitsu match was a true Ageo Gymnasium Home Game. Had a High School Gym vibe with a green and red court surrounded by yellow. The cameras aren't as good and there's not as many of them. Low production values. I don't think the betting sites streamed it. VB Passion didn't. I watched it at V.League TV! Surprised me I could do that. It was the only match available and the only one that wasn't on DAZN. Maybe there will be more of these low end home game broadcasts available? The image was 720 but the frame rate was low so it had a strobe like nauseating effect. The only thing I remember about the match is Arisa Inoue played instead of Yuki.

The Kurobe v NEC match had its moments. Everybody, both sides, played pretty well. I feel bad for Kurobe but I would have felt worse about NEC if they had lost. Kurobe controlled the 3rd set but failed in the end. Akane Ukishima played for Kurobe and did well (9/22). Tough spot for her. The Team Captain Saki Maruyama also plays OP and has been playing well, and she seems like a good captain. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

NEC's Misaki Yamauchi is bringing a little Saori Sakoda style fly in to her OP attacks. Very nice. Nanami Hirose continues to deliver a couple kills that feel like they are worth more than a point. This is going to be her year. She's got something going on.

Rhamat Alhassan makes her debut! She came in a double sub with Yanagita who committed a service error. They both left the court

Sun 18 Nov 2018 Day 6 Results

A couple upsets going on