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

Quote from brahmin

she only has to be to the right of those on her left and in front of a player behind her

That was the detail I wasn't aware of. Thank you!

Riho Ōtake played a couple sets for Denso against Toyota. She's one of those splash players who made the NT at 18/19 y/old. Must have had a little good run because I knew who she was before I knew what a Denso Airybee was. I believe she was injured and wheelchairing around at the end of the 2016-17 season, didn't play at all 2017-18, hardly played this season. I hope whatever is ailing her improves.

Rei Kudo got the start over Yui Asahi.

I'm seeing a pattern here. After I comment about something the opposite will come true

Highlights from the second week of the FINAL 8

Sat 09 MAR 2019

NEC Red Rockets v Toyota Body Queens (2–3) ... 25-20 25-16 24-26 22-25 23-25 Stats

Hisamitsu Springs v Toray Arrows (3–1) ... 22-25 25-20 25-19 25-22 Stats

JT Marvelous v Denso Airybees (2–3) ... 18-25 23-25 25-17 25-23 8-15 Stats

Saitama Ageo Medics v Hitachi Rivale (2–3) ... 25-16 25-18 17-25 22-25 11-15 Stats

Sun 10 MAR 2019

Hisamitsu Springs v Hitachi Rivale (3–1) ... 25-19 25-19 23-25 25-19 Stats

NEC Red Rockets v JT Marvelous (1–3) ... 17-25 25-22 16-25 18-25 Stats

Denso Airybees v Toyota Body Queens (1–3) ... 22-25 16-25 25-21 14-25 Stats

Saitama Ageo Medics v Toray Arrows (0–3) ... 20-25 19-25 22-25 Stats

Highlights Sat 09 March 2019 - Challenge Stage 1/3

Kurobe AquaFairies v Okayama Seagulls 0–3 ... 14–25 26-28 12-25 Stats

The All Star games are scheduled for:

April 20, 2019

10:00 Opening

11:00 first game V2 All-Star Game (Women's)

14:00 second game V1 All-Star Game (Women's)

As usual Japan posted it in pngs and pdfs

Swingers got the big love with Yuki, Sarina, Megumi, and Risa getting the most votes. Miyashita got 5th most votes (I'm pretty sure my google translating got that right but don't quote me)

Top libero is Okayama's Maruyama, top MB is Okayama's Yamaguchi, and top Setter is Okayama's Miyashita.

2nd place MB is Saitama's pajama wearing slumber party going Kyōko Aoyagi

[Update] This is the final Fan Vote Tally.

I think: 2 setters, 2 Liberos, 5 MBs, 6 Swingers will go, accompanied by the same number of V.League picks

● Setter

1 Haruka Miyashita Okayama 7,068

2 Miya Sato Hitachi 6,292

3 Airi Tahara Denso 2,792

4 Misaki Tanaka JT Marvelous 2,580

5 Nanami Seki Toray Arrows 2,024

6 Erika Sakae Hisamitsu Springs 1,448

7 Momoko Higane Toyota 1,148

8 Kozue Hayasaka Denso Airybees 1,016

9 Yuki Yamagami Toyota 932

10 Misaki Shirai Toray 824

● Libero

1 Aki Maruyama Okayama Seagulls 3,560

2 Sayaka Iwasaki NEC Red Rockets 3,076

3 Mako Kobata JT Marvelous 1,752

4 Chitose Nakagawa Denso Airybees 1,032

5 Mana Toe Hisamitsu Springs 912

6 Akane Yamagishi Saitama Ageo Medics 904

7 Minami Nishimura Okayama Seagulls 896

8 Risa Omuro Saitama Ageo Medics 796

9 Misato Sakakibara Toyota 496

10 Eima Kanako Okayama Seagulls 488

● Middle Blocker

1 Mai Yamaguchi Okayama 4,216

2 Kyōko Aoyagi Saitama Ageo Medics 3 , 296

3 Nana Iwasaka Hisamitsu Springs 2,668

4 Haruyo Shimamura NEC Red Rockets 2,448

5 Nanami Inoue Toray Arrows 1,592

6 Erika Araki Toyota 1,436

7 Anna Imura Okayama Seagulls 1,416

8 Erina Ogawa Toray Arrows 1,240

9 Kurami Natsuno KUROBE Aqua Fairies 1, 180

10 Aika Akutagawa JT Marvelous 1,076

● Outside Hitter ※ including Opposite

1 Yuki Ishii Hisamitsu Springs 10,596

2 Sarina Koga NEC Red Rockets 9,784

3 Megumi Kurihara JT Marvelous 8,368

4 Risa Shinabe Hisamitsu Springs 7,316

5 Ai Kurogo Toray Arrows 6,128

6 Yukiko Ebata PFU Blue Cats 4,856

7 Mizuki Yanagita NEC Red Rockets 4,756

8 Shiori Aratani NEC Red Rockets 3,712

9 Hisae Watanabe Hitachi Rivale 3,268

10 Yuka Imamura Hisamitsu Springs 3,120

Every week now, waiting and hoping for a stream

This NEC v Denso match seems like a sink or swim situation for both of them. Last time they met I rooted for Denso because I had written off NEC as beyond hope and thought it would benefit Denso more. I kind of feel that way tonight.

Wish I could be watching it

yay!

Denso v NEC

NEC is the worst defensive team in the league.

This is painful

Sillynameplus567 No Rhamat. Don't know why. She seems to have gotten the hang of things and was playing well, especially in this Final 8 stage.

Hisamitsu v Saitama:

I'm enjoying Saitama's setter Misaki Inoue more and more with every viewing. If we added up all the extra time one of her sets takes to get to Keti compared to one of her local cohorts I'll bet it adds a couple of minutes to every match

Hmm ... no Miya Sato for Hitachi

Saitama up 2 sets to 1 over Hisamitsu. We'll see a Tie-Break after Hisamitsu, up 12-8, wins the 4th.

Sat 16 March 2019 Results Day 5/8 FINAL 8 Stage

NEC. Man. Bad volleyball. 26% Attack, 40% Reception. Apparently Rhamat started the game. The stream didn't start until the 2nd set so I missed her. Yui Asahi (16/40, 1 Ace) high scorer for Denso. Continued props to her.

Saitama played pretty well but Jaja (2/14) struggled and Keti (30/76) was below par because Hisamitsu had a block party: (Nana 6, Foluke 5, Risa 3, Nomoto 2)

Hitachi got beaten down worse than NEC did but they didn't look half as bad. No sign of Miya Sato. Not on the stat sheet. Toray's MB Nanami Inoue (9/11, 3 blocks, 1 Ace).

Toyota still squishy. Easy work for JT.

Sat 16 March 2019 Results - Challenge Stage 2/3

PFU has to play the Grudge Match against an upstart V2 team. I don't know if Kurobe is better than PFU but they are more fun.

PFU played with a different dude on the sidelines. I like their new setter, college kid #18 Haruka Yamashita.

Sun 17 MAR

16:00 Okayama Seagulls v PFU BlueCats

I don't rate them high on Entertainment Value (beyond Nanami Seki), but Toray is the team that played pretty consistently this year, and more importantly got a little better and better as the season went on. Thanks mostly to Jana Kulan, who not only got better, she got taller. Totally weird. And they played mostly without The Canon--Mari Horikawa. Props to them, especially since they came into this fight without any Gift Points.

Toyota suffered injuries this season. No idea what Captain Takahashi's status is, why she's not playing.

Denso probably has the easiest degree of difficulty ending this thing but the match tonight between them and Toray will be particularly pants bunching. They split their Regular Round matches. If Denso wins they might make the Final 3. Wouldn't that be a hoot! They have only Saitama after that. Toray has two more matches to gain points, but one is against JT.

NEC has to go through Hisamitsu for a shot at glory. LOL at that.

I forgot to mention ... in these two Challenge matches Kurobe Coach played lefty OP #12 Akane Ukishima over Captain Saki Maruyama.

Ukishima had an average game against Okayama but smacked down 21/37 for 56.8% smacking rate against PFU. She looked dominant as heck. I really enjoyed it.

I now recognize the Japanese 山 thingy as "yama". I don't know what good it does for me, don't know what 'yama' means, but it makes me feel awesome!

Quote from brahmin

PFU has lost every match they have played this season and Kurobe has beaten them 3 times. The answer is self explanatory.

I just can't wrap my head around this notion that a team's W-L record is a measure of how good they are

Hitachi 2-1 NEC

Still no sign of Miya Sato. Onodera does a good job filling in for her, uses the MBs well for those quickies.

No sign of a stream for the Hisamitsu v JT match.