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

    Final 8 will be just like the Final 6 in past, but I don't know if they will carry over points (7 to 0) like before. It will be single round robin so 7 matches, regardless of conference.


    Best team of Final 8 goes to Final, while 2nd and 3rd place teams go to Final 3 semifinal, 2 match series, if team wins both matches they will advance. IF tied at 1 match each, then 25 point Golden Set.


    Final is similar to Final 3.


    As for Promotion/Relegation, the V-League will be at 12 teams next year, 6 in each conference. If the V2 winner has a S1 license for V1, then they will be automatically promoted. Right now Victorina Himeji is 5-0 in V2, but as a new team they have a S3 license. Whether that can be upgraded to an S1 in 1 year is not known at this time. I would guess that they cannot do that, so they may be stuck in V2 for one more year.


    Only JA Gifu Rioreina (3rd place 4-1) and Breath Hamamatsu (7th 2-3) are the only V2 teams with an S1 license at this time. That could change over the rest of the year going into next year. All other V2 teams are S2 licenses (cannot be promoted to V1), excluding Victorina.

    Quote from beri

    I was about to comment about on Western conference being stronger and then read your full post :rolll:


    I saw part of Denso x Kurobe and small part of Hisamitsu match. No words for the Hisamitsu match... Denso x Kurobe was really enjoyable.


    I know her from Galatasaray ofcourse but Sinead Jack looked so big next to her teammates lol, she had a decent game and you could tell Denso already trusts her and they play better with her on court. I'm bad with Japanese names, I liked Toukoku at times and she seems young, Nabeya did not kill much but she did kill in some crucial moments. Nabeya also seems talented to me. Those were the only 2 names I sadly recognized from your post xD hopefully I get better at it with time.

    I kid. I kid ;)


    Toukoku is a youngster (19 y/old) with potential. I'm happy she's getting a chance. She's doing well. Half the teams this year are sticking to a core lineup, half are throwing everybody in. I'm glad Denso is in the latter group. You sussed them pretty well. When Nabeya wakes up, and the setters figure out how to work with Sinéad, I think Denso is going to the top.


    The Hitachi/Okayama match was the fun one, but maybe not your style. It's loose and sloppy, but gosh they try hard :dance6:

    Quote from brahmin

    If the V2 winner has a S1 license for V1, then they will be automatically promoted.

    And the last place finisher in V1 is automatically demoted ... without a challenge match? Brutal, but why not.


    I want Himeji in V1 8)

    Quote from Canter

    how is Sinead Jack doing so far ? she was one of my fav. Mbs when playing in Turkey

    Sinéad is doing well. She's only recently started playing full time--with rotations in and out, of course--but leads the league in number of blocks. She also has the league's highest "Attack determined rate (including back attack)"


    I think she's only at about half what she can or will be. Big people are different. Slower, no matter their athleticism. She hasn't found the fluid slide kill that Foluke has going on yet, nor the lightening fast HULK SMASHES of the Japanese players. But she's working with two really good setters, imo, and it's coming. It's going to be scary. It's fun for me to watch these two fave setters of mine compete for getting it right :set:


    Edit: I should say I think it's on the setter's shoulders to get this right. Sinéad's just waiting for it. Several new big foreign MBs in the league this year, and they are all in the same boat. Setters got get it.

    Jack is just dominating right now, but put her up against Foluke and Rahmat and that will be interesting.


    You missed something interesting with the Hitachi-Okayama match. Rivale nearly had 4 players with 20 points each. Watanabe 22 (20k, 1b, 1a), Toi 20 (18k, 1b, 1a), Irisawa 21 (17k, 2b, 2a) and Uesaka 19 (17k, 1b, 1a).


    I've seen 3 players with 20, but never 4. That means that the entire team (minus Horii) was working well on offense.

    Quote from pope

    the amount of sets Mihajlovic is getting is disgusting... She will be injured again by the end of the season.


    I hope JT does not even reach the Final 8.

    It looks to me like it's lessening a bit. Still crazy, but Tanaka is getting a load and they are starting to use Akutagawa and Ogawa much more in the middle, maybe even more than they used Okumura.


    I feel your pain, tho :white:

    Quote from pope

    the amount of sets Mihajlovic is getting is disgusting... She will be injured again by the end of the season.


    I hope JT does not even reach the Final 8.

    JT already has a 9 point and 3 win advantage over Okayama for the last berth in the Western Conference. Still time left in the season, but I don't see Okayama making the playoffs.


    Only 3 teams have losing records right now, and all of them were in the second division last year. Okayama's lone win this season is against PFU. Kurobe's lone win is against PFU as well.


    Promoted teams (Okayama, PFU and Kurobe) record as a whole against last year's 1st Division teams is as of Sunday's matches is 0-15.

    Quote from brahmin

    Jack is just dominating right now, but put her up against Foluke and Rahmat and that will be interesting.


    You missed something interesting with the Hitachi-Okayama match. Rivale nearly had 4 players with 20 points each. Watanabe 22 (20k, 1b, 1a), Toi 20 (18k, 1b, 1a), Irisawa 21 (17k, 2b, 2a) and Uesaka 19 (17k, 1b, 1a).


    I've seen 3 players with 20, but never 4. That means that the entire team (minus Horii) was working well on offense.

    Do you have intel on why Rahmat isn't playing? It's weird.


    Spoiler Alert :lol:

    I was saving that Hitachi news for my big post. I didn't really realize it was that uncommon/special, tho. It's just TEAM, for me. Why I'm loving them :rose:

    Quote from sitenoise

    Do you have intel on why Rahmat isn't playing? It's weird.


    Spoiler Alert :lol:

    I was saving that Hitachi news for my big post. I didn't really realize it was that uncommon/special, tho. It's just TEAM, for me. Why I'm loving them :rose:

    Nothing on Rhamat (I've been spelling it wrong). Nothing on twitter or gram.

    Quote from brahmin

    Rivale nearly had 4 players with 20 points each. Watanabe 22 (20k, 1b, 1a), Toi 20 (18k, 1b, 1a), Irisawa 21 (17k, 2b, 2a) and Uesaka 19 (17k, 1b, 1a).


    I've seen 3 players with 20, but never 4. That means that the entire team (minus Horii) was working well on offense.

    The sad irony to this is that Uesaka didn't start the match. She came in at 14-21 in the first set for Osanai who was struggling. The previous two matches she did start and had 22 kills in each. Coulda made history,

    Quote from sitenoise

    And the last place finisher in V1 is automatically demoted ... without a challenge match? Brutal, but why not.


    I want Himeji in V1 8)

    Okay wait. I get it now that after THIS season because there is only 11 teams that the V2 winner will automatically be promoted to fill that 12th spot--without a V1 team having to be demoted.


    If Himeji actually wins the V2, maybe maybe maybe


    I guess we can wait until next season to find out about any Challenge matches in the system

    Quote from Diesse14

    What happened to Laura Heyrman?

    I don't think anyone knows. We almost never know status of players in Japan because no one from Japan comes here to tell us, and it seems like Japanese clubs keep this information close to the chest--at least I can't recall ever seeing an announcement of such things on their web sites.

    Highlights from Week 4


    Sat 24 Nov 2018

    Toyota Body Queens v Denso Airybees (3-1) (25-21, 25-22, 17-25, 25-20) Stats

    #20 Reina Toukoku shows her smarts; Sinéad shuts down Araki (and a few others) and shows her slide attack a few times, which I don't think is up to speed yet. Every time Neriman touches the ball it's a highlight.

    Display Spoiler


    PFU BlueCats v JT Marvelous (1-3) (25-19, 24-26, 16-25, 12-25) Stats

    V.TV = No highlights


    Okayama Seagulls v Saitama Ageo Medics (2-3) (27-25, 25-18, 19-25, 16-25, 9-15) Stats

    Ageo's Katarina "Keti" Barun has a beautiful attack style. And a great serve. Okayama's #18 Syuuka Kaneda is their attacker to watch.

    Display Spoiler


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

    Ai Kurogo didn't have that good of a match (watch her jump out of the way of one of Nanami Hirose's serves), but during the Tie-Break, after they switched sides, almost every set went to her. She got blocked a lot but she kept getting the sets and ultimately won the match. And gets post-match camera time to share her developing starlet personality.

    Display Spoiler


    Sun 25 Nov 2018

    Denso Airybees v Kurobe AquaFairies (3-1) (26-24, 20-25, 25-17, 26-24) Stats

    Not much here but #20 Reina Toukoku keeps growing every match, and so does Sinéad. She's going to be so much trouble for other teams by the end of the season.

    Display Spoiler


    NEC Red Rockets v Hisamitsu Springs (0-3) (17-25, 22-25, 21-25) Stats

    There were no highlights during this match



    Okayama Seagulls v Hitachi Rivale (2-3) (25-17, 20-25, 18-25, 25-21, 10-15) Stats

    No way highlights could do justice to this match.

    Display Spoiler

    I saw an instagram story of Heyrman: she is recovering in Antwerpen with Rousseaux. Something about her leg, but I don't know more..

    Quote from Diesse14

    I saw an instagram story of Heyrman: she is recovering in Antwerpen with Rousseaux. Something about her leg, but I don't know more..

    Thanks for the update. So she's not even in Japan, but back home. Could mean she's out for a long time.


    Rousseaux? Is that her loved one?

    Victorina Himeji, over in Division 2, has a Youtube Channel! Gosh, how contemporary and fan friendly of them. To celebrate that, and their undefeated record, I made a Division 2 Thread if anyone is interested. I don't even know if I got the names of all the teams correct, and there's no way I'm going to try and translate the names of all the players. So, no rosters, but the other basics are there.



  • sitenoise

    Changed the title of the thread from “Japan - V.League (Division 1, Women) 2018-2019” to “Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2018-2019”.