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

the youtube is streamed from V.TV ... that's great

Quote from blue1234

the JT vs PFU match on Youtube is surprisingly in a good quality too and not the usual 360-480. Though I wonder why the Thai MB for JT hasn't played any games so far? Injury?

and, i'm also surprised PFU is actually doing quite well against JT so far. Must be an off day/night for JT or have they been struggling since the beginning of the league?

I haven't seen Kaewkalaya Kamulthala yet. No idea what's going on.

I wouldn't say JT's been struggling. They do struggle, though. It's just been a strange pattern this year where the top half teams lose the first set to lower half teams. Then they usually crush them.

(that second set was close , too ... lol if PFU gets their first win against JT in HD)

That's JT. The way they've been playing. Good for PFU for pushing them.

The NEC match on Volleyball Cup has two audio tracks going. Took me a while to figure it out . lol switching to VB my passion.

hmm .. I'm unable to download that JT match from youtube. "account required". never seen that before. V.TV drama? Also no on-demand re-watching at V.TV.

JT's new uniforms look weird. especially in HD

Quote from blue1234

I usually only download music from YouTube and that doesn't require signing in, so I'm not totally sure either....but some music does have copyright and when you try to download those, it won't allow you to, maybe something like that is happening and why you can't download this specific vid?

Probably something like that. It's not asking for account this morning but says 'host not available"--even though I can play the video on youtube.

Sat 24 Nov 2018 Day 7 Results

Toyota v Denso:

Toyota is still looking good. Team attack=38% and receive=67%. Saori Takahashi continues to impress @18/42=42.9% plus 3 Aces. Neriman is still beautiful @27/58--10/17 from downtown. MBs Araki and Watanabe, who have been performing very well, went a combined 4/24. Libero Mio Sato is growing on me. She's the non-receiving libero, but the one I notice. Toyota is a solid team with good chemistry. Hope it keeps up. Momoko Higane

Denso is still rusty. Nabeya is still way under performing @12/49=24.5%. Sinéad put the kibosh on Toyota's MBs. Only 7 kill blocks but a major intimidation. She's not being used enough offensively, imo, @12/27=44%. I'd like to see her get closer to 10 swings/set, although at 197cm she is a bit of a lumbering clod. I'm not seeing the HULK SMASH I want to see. New setter Kozue seems to have a better connection with her than Ari Tahara. I love Ari but have to admit Kozue is bringing an A game. She's winning me over with a little better floor defense than Ari. Riho Otake wasn't suited up. No idea why. Marvel Comics Super Hero Rei Kudo better get it together or she's going to the bench for good. She got taken out after 1 set. With Sakamoto MIA this is her chance. She better grab it.

PFU v JT:

Broadcast via V.TV. I actually think VB my Passion's stream of it looked a little better. It had more blurry artifacts but the moving images were smoother. I wish I could download it for a repeat viewing.

PFU took the first set and pushed it to deuce in the second and then disappeared. They have not won a game yet this year. Chatchu-on started the season pretty well but has slowed down (for her) @14/39=35%. MB and Captain #12 Mai Shimizu--6/17 and 2 blocks--is playing and leading well but not having enough impact. They need Ebata back ASAP. They don't have anything else. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how poorly the three teams from the Challenge league have been doing, a combined W-L of 2-15 so far.

JT played a JT game. They flopped around for a while and then got it together. After my praising Mizuki Tanaka for having a good year so far she went 0/7 in set 1 and got benched. 19 y/old Kotona Hayashi is surprising me, a little (12/38). Yuka Meguro isn't surprising me at 9/22-40.9%). She's a good player. #1 MB Aika Akutagawa 11/25, 2 blocks. Fact. She is playing very well this year. JT is a good team but something is plaguing them. Mi Jairo Vittorio Chi blanking Bystrica = 21/55, 5 and 10/17, 2 from downtown. Thai MB Kaewkalaya Kamulthala was seen with the team during time out huddles but that's it. With MBs Akutagawa and Anna Ogawa (9/17) playing well it may be difficult to crack the rotation. What the heck is up with Yuka Kitsui? She's 0/2 for the year.

NEC v Toray 

is going to get its own post.

Okayama v Ageo

Quote from NABoruto

Jaja with 17 pts, 13attks, 2blks, and 2aces. Ageo setter should know that this girl really can help the team. Down 2sets to none and winning the match in deciding 5set 15-9 by Ageo...

NEC Red Rockets (2-3) Toray Arrows  (25-23, 15-25, 25-14, 16-25, 9-15)

TORAY

Why isn't Mari Horikawa playing? She is 0/2 with 1 error for the year. Is that what happens to newly appointed captains?

Kurogo is developing a bit of a starlet personality. Okay, whatever. She's batting 31.3% for the year. Not good enough. She's leading the league in Serve Effect Rate--whatever that is. She's still slow on defense, and receiving at 51.1% for the year. She needs to be in the 60s.

Toray is 3-2, having beaten Okayama, Toyota, and NEC; losing to Hisamitsu and JT Marvelous. Good enough, but I find them uninspiring. Beyond MB Kaho Ono (because I know her sister) and Ai Kurogo, I couldn't pick any of the others out of a lineup. I couldn't, in fact, post their starting lineup without looking at the stat sheet. Are they boring because I don't know them, or do I not know them because they are boring? They are a team who relies on a tall Caucasian swinger, which I generally find boring--unless they are crazy ass beautiful mofos like Brankica and Neriman. But I digress ....

NEC

Coach has stuck with those 7 players almost every moment of every game this year except for the blowout loss to Toyota--Shimamura replaced a struggling Ueno and Yamaguchi took over setting responsibilities. And there's the rub.

ALL last year Tsukada was the setter and Ueno was MB'ing and I thought it was a temporary experiment. Shimamura and Yamaguchi would come in only to save the day, albeit usually unsuccessfully; if NEC really wanted to win games, Shimamura and Yamaguchi would start and finish. I have to let that go. Tsukada is the NEC setter now and Ueno played her way into the starting lineup. Kudos to her. She's a service error waiting to happen but she also throws a few aces. She's blocked 12/year (same as her team mate Ono. For comparison, Erika Araki has 18, Sinéad-26). She's playing well and looks like she knows what she's doing. She looks comfortable. Last year she looked like she wandered onto the court of the wrong sport. Welcome aboard, Kaori!

NEC has a bit of a traffic jam at MB. Ono and Ueno are doing fine. I don't expect to see much of Shimamura, but she's certainly capable. NEC hasn't used import Rhamat Alhassan yet--she's stepped on court a couple times but is sporting a bagel across stat lines. With those four ahead of her I also don't expect to see much of rookie #13 Nichika Yamada, who impressed over the summer at the Asian Club games. I guess that's fair but I see a lot of potential in her and would love to see her get some playing time.

Speaking of traffic jams, Shiori Aratani and Captain Mizuki Yanagita are essentially riding the bench. Yanagita has taken a few swings but Aratani has taken zip. That's because:

1. Let's start referring to Sarina Koga as a Preexisting Condition, and leave it at that.
2. Misaki Yamauchi seems to have a lock on the OP. She's handling the bulk of reception duties (52.5%), and is only batting 31%/year. But she plays with fire. Her numbers could be and should be better but I'm very happy with her on court, and that thing of a receiving OP is cool. She has the potential to become the de facto leader of the team. I'd welcome that.
3. Nanami Hirose is the best offensive weapon NEC has right now. Including serve. Her little Zen Breathing exercises make me nervous because they make me think she's nervous. I wish she had Yuki Ishii's bullet-proof willpower. She's tied for the league lead in Aces but has almost double the errors of everyone else. She's batting 39%/year, and she's nothing to write home about at floor defense, but she has the uncanny ability to make a kill, at the right time, with the right style, that seems like it's worth more than a point. It picks the team up. Puppies and Rainbows are everywhere. That's valuable.

Sayaka Iwasaki is a serviceable libero. I don't give her the love she deserves (because I wanted free agents Arisa Sato or Yumi Nakagawa. Yumi is MIA from the league. Does anyone know her whereabouts?)

THE GAME

NEC lost.

Edit: Apologies to brahmin for failing to use the proper Kill % numbers. I made too many mistakes to go fix them all now.

I was finally able to download the PFU v JT match. It looks better online. What's up with that?

Speaking of JT, the dearly departed Yuka KANASUGI's new team, Victorina Himeji, is undefeated over in Division 2 League. I wish I could watch their games, but they don't seem to be broadcast anywhere--and the V.League isn't even offering up Highlight reels. Woe, is me.. Yuka has worked her way into the rotation, playing significant minutes now. She's a party.

Hisamitsu v NEC

Foluke is back! Arisa Inoue in for Yuki again. NEC has countered by starting Yamaguchi at setter

This too easy for Hisamitsu

Here comes Shimamura. Yanagita in for Hirose. Koga preexists.

Shimamura stirred up some trouble. Hisamitsu countered with Yuki. Check mate.

Sun 25 Nov 2018 Day 8 Results

Denso v Kurobe:

I forgot to give a shout out in last night's recap to Denso OH #20 Reina Toukoku. She played the whole game against Toyota, came in at Set 2 and finished tonight. Combined 18/48, a couple blocks, decent passing. I'd been impressed with her in some U-Tournaments. Nice to see her get significant time with Denso. Rei Kudo finally had a decent game (14/36). Nabeya still struggling (17/59). Sinéad (8/19, 3 blocks). Kozue started, Ari finished. What's exciting is it appears Kozue and Ari are in a battle to see who can make the best connection with Sinéad. Whoever wins is going to get the minutes. Also nice to see vet Mizuho Ishida starting. I feel better when she's on court.

Kurobe is an enjoyable, sweet, lovable group of girls who aren't closers. They could have taken this match if they had some killer instinct. They're in control until the set reaches 20 or so, and then they don't know what to do. Kurobe has the best receive line in the league right now, both statistically and visually, but their passing was a little off tonight. Serve/receive at 53%, which is terrible for them. Mainstay #3 Nanami Wasai had a particularly bad night

NEC v Hisamitsu:

A pretty low quality match from both sides for the most part. Hisamitsu won it with defense and digging. Their reception and passing isn't oiled up yet this season. Foluke brought her beautiful self back to the court (9/19, 5 blocks), played like she hasn't missed a beat. Yuka Imamura had a good game but her numbers don't reflect it so I don't post them. Arisa Inoue (5/26) in her second match as a starter. Bummer. Yuki Ishii came in for her in Set 2 and sort of saved the 3-0 blowout day after Shimamura stirred up a little trouble on the other side.

NEC. Kana Ono (6/11) looks pissed when she hits the ball. I like that. Nanami Hirose went 1/8 on her way to the bench. She's fragile. The stats say Shimamura was 7/21 but I don't believe that. She had seven kills in the first 30 seconds of entering the game. I promise to love you, NEC, in good times and bad. But, come on.

Okayama v Hitachi

Match of the night. By a mile. One of the most enjoyable of the year. Hitachi is so rockin' my world right now I have goosebumps. Okayama was also surprisingly fun and scrappy scrappy. If an average match might see two or three full on swan dive belly-flops per set, maybe one or two pinball machine plays per match where players use any available body part in self-defense ... This match had a dozen of each of those from each team per set, and most all of them resulted in success. Beautiful! I exaggerate, but not much. I feel like I might exaggerate some more in a separate post on this match.

Standings 2018.11.25 -- after Week 4 (8 competition days)

EASTERN CONFERENCE

WESTERN CONFERENCE

brahmin

1. Do you know if the Final 8 will be played per conference or 1-8 overall? The Western Conference looks a little tougher to get out of if they do it that way. Now that I look at it, I should take this over to one of the Euro threads and let them bitch about how unfair it is
2. Have you heard anything about relegation procedures, etc.? Will the bottom three teams this year have to play the upstarts from V2 to remain in V1?

OVERALL

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE:

#	Team	BECAUSE	W	L
1.	Hitachi Rivale	Pure Chaos. A beautiful mess. Most over-achieving team. Foreigner free at the moment	4	2
2.	Kurobe Aqua Fairies	Pure Joy. Rina Hiratani is my favorite player right now. Freya's nuts. Yurika Banba, libero goddess	1	6
3.	Toyota Body Queens	Oiled up and ready to rumble. Neriman. Takahashi. Araki. Momoko Higani Executioners	5	1
4.	JT Marvelous	Brankica. JT lose focus. When they focus, they kill. Fun to watch them try to figure that out	4	2
5.	Denso Airybees	Kozue and Ari going at it. A Setters Dual. Sinéad looks so big. Sakamoto's in Germany	4	2
6.	NEC Red Rockets	No words	4	3
7.	Saitama Ageo Medics	Loaded weapons, safety still on. Upstart rookie Yoshino needs to smile. Jaja and Aoyagi MB team are ready for you	3	2
8.	Okayama Seagulls	Southpaw swinger Sanae Watanabe looks like she swings with her off arm. It's uncomfortable to watch	1	4
9.	Hisamitsu Springs	Might move up now Foluke is back. Imamura is so good at the spiking. I love Yuki. Risa Risa Risa	3	1
10.	Toray Arrows	I want Mari Horikawa on court	3	2
11.	PFU Blue Cats	I want them to win a game, unless it's against NEC, Hitachi, or Kurobe	0	7