Japan NT 2019 Women

Japan Squad for the 2019 FIVB U18 World Championship

Setter:

Haruka Kaji

Natsumi Kondo

Libero:

Mana Nishizaki

Middle-blockers:

Madoka Kashimura

Yoshino Sato 182cm

Ai Hirota

Outside Hitters:

Manami Koyama

Mika Yoshitake

Rino Murooka

Yoshie Kawakami

Yoshino Nishikawa

Yukiko Wada

Quote from sloth

Are Japan going for another Gold?

I don't know these kids very well. It's pretty much the same squad that won Gold earlier this year at the Cornacchia World Cup against U19 squads. And many of them won Gold at the 2018 Asian Youth Championship U17. So we'll see

U20 OH Yuki Nishikawa's little sister Yoshino was MVP at the U17. She'll probably be the star this time as well.

I was thinking it was "Bold" to go with just one each of libero, setter, and MB and a bunch of OHs, but most of these kids haven't figured out what they are yet. A lot are OH/MB hybrids, and that's sort of the way they play in high school. All YOLO and whatnot

Quote from theloneracer

Only one change was made to the Cornacchia World Cup squad. Ai HIROTA (MB/173 cm) replacing Nana SAKAKIBARA (MB/180 cm) in the team.

According to JVA website:

I should have known better. I copied the player list from volleybox where I would have been the one to mark their positions from a previous tournament, but anybody could have changed it, and as we know these things are in flux from tournament to tournament. Like my heroes Rino Murooka and YOLO!

Speaking of whom, Yolo is only a couple CM behind Rino in Spike reach (or whatever you call it) 306-173=133cm for Yolo and 297-162=135cm for Rino (Sakoda as a reference is 305-175=130cm). I guess I like high jumpers

I just looked and Japan hasn't been on the podium in this century for the FIVB Youth U18 World Championship, despite winning the last seven U17 Asian Championships.

Okay kids, your mission, should you decide to accept it: Win one for the century. Bring it home.

SMMTV has a whole bunch of High Quality videos of the 2018 U17 Games. I looked at a bunch of them. Not real exciting. A highlight is this Chinese Player who cracked me up, WANG Wenhan. Imagine Yurie Nabeya as a loud-mouthed middle blocker. Fun stuff. She didn't play in the JPN v CHN Final but played in the JPN v CHN Prelim match.

Here's the Final Match at the beginning of an 11 hour SMMTV run:

Japanese kids and their hair style malfunctions

MB Madoka Kashimura, OH Yoshino Nishikawa, and the libero Mana Nishizaki were starters in the U17 Tournament last year and the Cornacchia Cup this year. So we'll likely see them this U18. I forgot my Rino Murooka started most of the matches at Cornacchia. She's got that YOLO life force. I do remember now being bummed there was no video of the tournament.

This is the first I've seen Yuki Nishikawa's little sister Yoshino. Not as weird as her sister but slightly off enough. I hope the two of them take over the Japanese volleyball scene.

U17 is a level or two down from the High School Championships. Makes sense. Most of the players are 1st of 3 year high schoolers. Lots of Densos and whatnot. Apparently Japanese aren't born with the ability to receive. They must work at it.

Mostly juniors this year's U18. I hope to see some of it and exercise my Rino love

My guess at the starting seven:

Setter: Haruka Kaji

Libero: Mana Nishizaki

MBs: Madoka Kashimura and Yoshino Sato

OHs: Yoshino Nishikawa, Yukiko Wada (Cornacchia MVP), and Rino Murooka

Go Team

Short video clip of Coach Nakata and, I assume, the Coach of the man version of the game, on the meaning of the World Cup. I'll bet Coach Nakata says "I've banked on Yuki and Risa my whole career, I'm not stopping now". LOL

Cute AF

It's interesting to me which ones were immediately super obvious. Then there's the few, after the process of elimination, that became obvious. Finally a couple that still don't quite resonate.

Here's what I assume to be the correct identifications, with the immediately super obvious ones in blue, the 2nd tier obvious in red, and the stragglers in regular text:

Yuri Yoshino becomes obvious because, poor girl, she's the only one with a face not built on a smile, and her cartoon reflects that. Yamada and Irasawa have way wrong hair, which threw me at first, but I get that they all had to have that Japanese dippity-do malfunction thing. I don't know Kotomi Osaka well enough to recognize her (she hardly played, if at all), and Tamaki Matsui, besides also having incorrect hair is such a sexy beast there's no way a cartoon could deliver that.

There's an animated version of the girls with Coach Aihara dancing across the stage out there on Tweeter somewhere but I can't attach it. It's Gold!

Finally, I just can't get enough of how big, in every way except height, my beautiful YOLO is:

Quote from sitenoise

My guess at the starting seven:

Setter: Haruka Kaji

Libero: Mana Nishizaki

MBs: Madoka Kashimura and Yoshino Sato

OHs: Yoshino Nishikawa, Yukiko Wada (Cornacchia MVP), and Rino Murooka

Got 6 out of 7. Manami Koyama got the nod over Yukiko Wada. Manami has a rising star haircut vibe going on. I thought she might get the nod over my Rino.

2019.09.05

JPN 3–0 COD [25-11 , 25-15 , 25-9]

Yukiko Wada is the only player who didn't play the opening match. Maybe something going on with her. Manami Koyama was high scorer, playing only a set and a half with 7 points (including 3 Aces). Rino Murooka had 4 points in two sets, including one of Japan's two blocks (with all her 162cm).

Japan's scoring was well distributed (7,6,6,5,5,5,4,1). The low totals a result of COD's 36 errors.

The Moment is Now

That's the banner on YOLO's Tweeterland Page. And it's true. And Coach Nakata missed it. I've been banging the drum for Miwako Osanai to make the NT for two years, but YOLO is a true backup OP to Risa Shinnabe. I believe and understand Coach Nakata might not know how to coach/handle her, but Japan desperately needs someone with a little life running through their body. And 18/19 years old is when you throw players in the pool, especially players who have just delivered you two Gold Medals. Honestly, I'd take YOLO over Koga, Osanai, and Nabeya. I wouldn't deny Mayu Ishikawa her place. She deserves it too.

On a lighter note ... Hey! Altinli YOLO seems to also have an appreciation for the dancing giraffe. Check out her second tweeter from the top. I bet we can agree it isn't surprising

I'm ....

Quote from theloneracer

(Sept. 12) they will also be back on VS嵐 (VS Arashi).

I saw one of those VS Arashi shows with NT members. Embarrassingly fun. Will this be a live thing we can watch, do you know? Or wait for it to be uploaded?

Quote from theloneracer

As promised, here is the episode with the Japan WNT http://www.miomio.tv/watch/cc456238/.

And here is the previous show that got removed on YT http://www.miomio.tv/watch/cc455596/

I can't get anything to play there. Just popups to online poker sites