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

Empress's Cup

December 14 match results - First Round

Close one for Kurobe They play Hitachi tomorrow

Victorina Himeji advances to play Toyota tomorrow

JT Marvelous plays Okayama tomorrow

NEC Red Rockets play JA Gifu--the second place team in V2

Empress's Cup

December 15 match results - Second Round

Victorina Himeji is eliminated

I wonder what lineups teams are deploying. I can't find stats or anything.

Quote from beri

Anyone knows how we can watch express cup, I can literally find 0 info on it, even finding live scores to just follow the scores of the matches is a pain...

Info is scarce. But I think I've determined that these first two rounds weren't broadcast at all. The final rounds next weekend are (DAZN), but live streams are unlikely, but I dunno--this is my first real time experience. Maybe the betting site will have them. After the fact, there are usually fan cam replays posted, often good quality, usually by that pooshan youtuber. I have some enjoyably watchable vids of the finals from the past year or two.

I check this site for scores that aren't live live, but ... https://www.jva.or.jp/index.php/results/scorebox/416

The main, pretty useless site, is http://tk2018.jva.or.jp/ as best as I can tell.

Quote from beri

Hisamitsu struggled in set 1 winning 26-24 after being down 22-24

Where did you find that kind of info? My Internet skills are not up to yours lol

I did discover at the NEC web site that Rhamat Alhassan started the game, but I can't find any stats.

Okayama has a couple OHs that take a lot of swings but their MBs are more exciting and efficient scorers, imho. #22 Koyuki Okusu, the one who wears one of her shoelaces as a headband, is also pretty good. I recently discovered Kawashima played for the NT just as you posted. I don't know what a player like her wants or is able to achieve. If she played NT five years ago, has she just gotten worse? Others came up who are better? Or did she perhaps decide that the rigors of NT schedule were not for her, she's happy playing club level only?

Altinli ... interesting about Boz. I'm still learning Japanese players and have noticed from time to time that someone who gets my attention may have gotten a shot with the NT at a Montreux or a WGP, or some Asian Cup in their younger days. As you say, who really knows. I thought I "discovered" Hisamitsu's Yuka Imamura last year and was really proud when she made the NT (but never made a tournament roster). Turns out she's made the list before and played a Montreux or two. I think she is one of the best hitters in the league.

As best I understand the Empress Cup, it is something that appears to have 'started' months ago for the High Schools and Universities (maybe some V2 League teams?). A bunch of qualifying matches that eventually leaves a top ten or so to play the big girls for Christmas. I think everything up to now has been played in facilities that probably don't have broadcast equipment. I've watched some V2 League matches on-demand and it's just two cameras operated by Uncle Fred and Dutch way up in the stands, mid-court. One camera zooms in on the server before the play and then on whoever made the kill after a play, abruptly cutting to the wide angle stationary camera for everything else. No commentary.

Oh, it looks like DAZN is broadcasting the Quarterfinals today/tonight/tomorrow--depending on where you live (starting at 11:00am Dec 16 JST)--maybe the betting sites will grab them:

11:00 - HisamitsuSprings v Hitachi Rivale

13:00 - NEC Red Rockets v Denso Airybees

15:00 - Toyota Body Queens v Toray Arrows

17:00 - Saitama Ageo v JT Marvelous

Empress's Cup

December 16 match results - Quarterfinals

Either Saitama Ageo has finally loaded their guns or JT had a meltdown

NEC is 3–0 against Denso this year

Semi Finals next weekend:

Hisamitsu Spring vs. NEC Red Rockets

Toyota Body Queens vs. Saitama Ageo

Toyota won this thing last year in a 5-setter against Denso, after Denso handed Hisamitsu their first loss of the season in the quarters.

Hey! Let's see what happened

One thing I'll say about Brankica: she is brilliant at Tips, Taps, and soft little pushovers. The other team thinks they're about to get a free ball and instead find themselves scrambling to dig the thing. She adds reverse psychology to her court awareness. She projects an "I don't care about this broken play" attitude and then sneaks one in there.

Saitama Ageo 3–1 JT Marvelous [22−25, 25−20, 25−14, 25−15]

Well now ....

Obviously JT didn't play well enough to win, but they didn't play poorly either. This was one of those Toyota/Okayama deals where Saitama showed up and played better. And they did it with middle blockers like Okayama. The video starts near the end of the first set so we don't get to see much of the one JT won. Set 2 belonged to wholesome and cute MB #11 Kyōko Aoyagi; Set 3 was JAJA's--servin', scorin', blockin'. This was not a Keti Show by any means. The difference maker on the wings was 19 y/old super serious frowning face rookie #29 Yuri Yoshino. She's a player. Called it.

#11 Yuka Meguro didn't play for JT, and for my money she is their best player, but other than that it was not a sit down. Shit happens. Congratulations Saitama!

In honor of this Saitama win I am going to start referring to them as Saitama instead of Ageo. Dawn of an era.

OMG it's a treasure trove

I watched the couple NEC v Denso sets. Rhamat Alhassan started the game, played until Denso started running away with it and were up 10-6. Shimamura replaced her. Didn't see her after that. Alhassan looks quite young. I didn't see her make any errors or anything. It's not her fault the NEC attackers can't score. I feel kind of bad for her for a couple reasons:

1. I don't imagine a foreign player would sign a contract with a Japanese team just to train and workout with them
2. NEC has two middle blockers who play for the NT (Shimamura and Ono, although Ono didn't make the 2018 roster), Kaori Ueno, who has improved leaps and bounds from last year and is playing very well this year. I won't mention 18 y/old rookie Nichika Yamada. Wait, yes I will. She's the one I want to see on the court. In other words, it's a tough position to crack.

An odd situation.

Quote from theloneracer

Hopefully the other sets will be upload.

I hope we do get the rest of the Empress Cup sets

That Youtuber also has both Hitachi v Okayama matches in glorious HD, amongst other fine matches. Great Find theloneracer ! Thank you Thank you.

More Empress Cup Sets are starting to show up!

Can anyone tell me what this listing at the right end of each category means:

全

リ

｜

グ

順

Google Translated as:

"All

Li

|

grayed

order"

Example Source:

https://www.vleague.jp/form/d/…ence=-1&leg=0&team_id=284

I think my best translation guess would be "overall return", but I still don't know what that means, or what a good number would be for each stat category.