Same here. though just heads up, she is no Chatchu-on 
on the skill level yet, but does have the passion and drive for the sport. So hope she has a good experiences good or bad, just no injuries please.
btw, i'm not sure if it's #11 or 13 from PFU, but she is small, yet aggressive and have a good hop....i'm liking her lol
btw, i'm not sure if it's #11 or 13 from PFU, but she is small, yet aggressive and have a good hop....i'm liking her lol
#11 Ayaka Horiguchi is the smaller one who has quite a new spring in her step, and she received a lot. With Tsutsui and Wasai in the back, she's going to be the target. She may be coming into her own, finally. Wasn't much there last year. I should say that PFU's other libero (besides Tsutsui), Minori Wada is also pretty good.
#13 is Nao Tsuga. She's one in the trio I call the "Tough Cookies", along with #4 Saori Uda and #12 Mai Shimizu. Tsuga is a Lefty who plays OP, btw.
Everybody looks happier and better this year.
Go PFU 
When a team uses its foreign-spot to bring an MB, they intend to use them just for blocking-purposes or can I expect some MB-attack action by that team? I felt in love for volleyball because of Fabiana's attacks and it will crush my heart if they use her only for blocking
When a team uses its foreign-spot to bring an MB, they intend to use them just for blocking-purposes or can I expect some MB-attack action by that team? I felt in love for volleyball because of Fabiana's attacks and it will crush my heart if they use her only for blocking
They use them for attacks. Foluke contributed more as an attacker than a blocker for sure. Jaja was a better attacker than blocker for Saitama.
Blocking is kind of an afterthought in Japan 
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#11 Ayaka Horiguchi is the smaller one who has quite a new spring in her step, and she received a lot. With Tsutsui and Wasai in the back, she's going to be the target. She may be coming into her own, finally. Wasn't much there last year. I should say that PFU's other libero (besides Tsutsui), Minori Wada is also pretty good.
#13 is Nao Tsuga. She's one in the trio I call the "Tough Cookies", along with #4 Saori Uda and #12 Mai Shimizu. Tsuga is a Lefty who plays OP, btw.
Everybody looks happier and better this year.
Go PFU
GO PFU! here's hoping for more wins to come this season.
In case I haven't mentioned how pleased I was with PFU's setter, Naoko Shimahata, last night, I just checked that stats. She had 6 points: 2 kills, 3 blocks, and an ace.
Go PFU
I know, I know, all they've done so far is beat Kurobe 
but I'm getting wonderful positive vibes from them. Watching them all cry and smile after their first win ever was touching 
Just picking at scraps here, trying to make the most of a lackluster opening day ....
Watched the live score of Hitachi v Himeji go by last night. Himeji clobbered Hitachi in the first set 25–16. Color me hopeful. MB Arisa Nagano, Himeji Gold, went 8/8 through the first set and a half or so. After that she went 0/8, ending 8/16. Ouch. Apparently the team followed her trajectory.
Himeji's offense was spread pretty well to the swingers in terms of swings, but nobody was scoring: Riho Sadakane 17/55, Saki Tanaka 15/51, Ivna Colombo 14/37. I don't know who was swinging from the right side of the court. Tanaka is a lefty, but I heard Colombo was an OP.
Himeji seems to be banking on upstart Sadakane, who was also the target in reception. She didn't deliver in either direction. Yuka Kanasugi might get her job back. Himeji's pipsqueak OH and Captain, Sakie Takahashi, donned a libero uniform and played reception. They might want to re-think that. Aside from Nagano's brilliant start, the MBs did nothing. Himeji has five good MBs. I don't know why they came up empty. I wish I could watch the match and see 
On the other side of the net, Miya Sato only subbed a couple times. The swingers all swung and received well: Watanabe 22/49; OP Kubota 15/28; Uesaka, the weakest at 12/38 and she was the target of reception with 58.8%, the only one to receive at less than 60%. Hitachi's team reception was 61.3%.
MB Mai Irisawa had a couple aces and one block but was 5/14 in attack. Gotta up that ante.
Display MoreKurobe had the best receiving line in the league last year (Hisamitsu might have edged them out right at the end but for most of the year it was Kurobe). That was due to Rina Hiratani and Nanami Wasai, and their libero Banba. Hiratani retired and Wasai moved to PFU. Major blow to Kurobe. I've never seen Simone Lee before so I don't know what to expect from her. Most foreign OHs don't receive in Japan because, frankly, they suck at it compared to Japanese. Suelle Oliveira received for Himeji last year and was pretty good. She got targeted because Himeji's other receivers are top o' the line. Most Japanese OHs love to receive and attack. They do it all the time.
Simone Lee might give Kurobe a slight boost in scoring over last year but if she's going to receive it may result in a net negative. Only one match so far. We'll have to wait and see how things play out. I enjoyed her pipe attacks!
I dunno why Dindin didn't play. She may be a better wing than MB but Kurobe needs MB. They have two good OPs and a few decent OHs, but no real MBs.
On the other side of the net, I wonder why Ebata didn't play. What has happened to that girl's career? Nanami Wasai played instead of her. Maybe for reception. I have a good feeling about PFU this year. I was shocked by how much their setter has improved. Having Wasai and Sayaka Tsutsui on the receiving line probably helped. they've already won more games than they did last year!
Go PFU
I am a fan of USA, japan, china, well most of the country. Generally i am a volleyball fan.
I already saw Lee played in USNT last year she played inVNL and this year in norceca. She is not a steady passer, she even played as Opposite in norceca this year and became best scorer. The thing is they can't move her to opposite because kurobe has decent opposite too. But, does their opposite receive a ball? If yes then maybe make her an receiving opposite and let lee play as oh but not receiving the ball. Thought, it's agreement between lee and the coaches to improve her reception so she can step up as well in USNT.
Dindin can play both wing and mb. She got best opposite recently in Philippine league, but yeah i think they need middle blocker and the thing is dindin's training as mb was when she played in toray and that was few months ago!
Pfu might reserve ebata for more important matches. I think that's their game plan.
As I mentioned above, last year the VTV matches never made it outside VTV. The DAZN matches were the ones that found streams on youtube and livestream365.
I tried to subscribe to DAZN last year to no avail. It's Japan only. I told them I was a Japanese citizen working abroad and my daughter (which I don't have) was suffering from depression and an eating disorder because she couldn't watch her beloved NEC Red Rockets. They didn't care.
We'll just have to wait and see how things go. I'll be heartbroken if all I get to see is the VTV matches. They seem to be almost exclusively the least interesting matches of the night.
It's stressful looking for videos and live stream. If they want the league to be more popular outside japan, then put all the matches in vtv. If they want subscriptions then fans can pay if they really want to watch the game.
The problem is they only want it to be available in japan, which is weird because japan volleyball is very popular and many fans want to see their idols play and they can't because they don't have access.
I love this rag-tag version of JT. Starting the young setter again. It's only 3–1 and she's already had a couple great digs and dives. Maybe I'll watch tonight to see if she sets the ball very well or not
Simone Lee has a big wide swing and a big wide smile 
Kurobe might steal a set here
Kurobe bringing the hammer down 22–7 
in set 4
Kurobe 25–12 JT.
Tie-break! This is all about Kaori Mabashi, who came over from Hitachi, and Akane Ukishima scoring points. Both of them are clients of mine
| Home |
Away |
Set 1 |
Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Stats | Vid | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denso | Okayama |
CANCELLED Due to Typhoon |
|||||||||
| JT | 3–2 | Kurobe | 25–20 | 23–25 | 25–22 | 12–25 | 17–15 | 102–107 | Stats | YT | |
| Hisamitsu | NEC |
CANCELLED Due to Typhoon |
|||||||||
| PFU | 0–3 | Toyota | 17–25 | 11–25 | 19–25 | 47–75 | Stats | YT | |||
JT playing their experimental jazz lineup almost lost to Kurobe because Kurobe played well. JT is almost Okayama-esque when they play sans Big Caucasian Swinger™. Made for a fun match.
Toyota playing full force clobbered PFU. Like Neriman needs another dagger in her toolkit. What's with the jump serve, girl?
Araki 9/11and Watanabe in the middle, Uchiseto and Neriman on the pins, setter and libero. They're playing around with the 2nd OH position. Teenager Hinata Shighihara is getting the most minutes and doing well; Nozomi Kanemoto played a set and a half in this match, which is cool. She scored a few points, got a kill block, and had fun. Uchiseto is playing the best I've seen of her in years. She looks less like a rugby player now, even does pipe attacks.
I don't care. I'm still aboard the PFU train. It wasn't ugly and PFU tried as best they could. They started with their new version 2.0 lineup and looked like they were going to be at least a tiny threat, but by the end of the match it was all PFU soup. Everyone got a shot at helping. Thanacha got in a swing, all three Tough Cookies were on the floor at once, Ebata made an appearance, they switched setters, rotated liberos. All in vain. I think PFU will win 5 or 6 games this year
Found a partial bit of the Hitachi v Himeji match on youtube. That means the DAZN matches might be getting out there for us in the future. It offers hope, at least. This stream kicks in mid Set 2 after Arisa Nagano stopped scoring
Looks like Ivna Colombo is playing (non-receiving-ish) OH but I've only checked out a small portion. Himeji already has a couple good OPs, one real good one (last year's MVP Yuko Asazu) and one promising pint-sized college kid, Saki Tanaka.
It's a 480p stream so I'm still waiting for the first professional HD view of my beloved Himeji
btw - in volleyball does "game" refer to a match or a set? I say 'game' and mean match but I'm anxious about it
I think it's something from the US. They call game instead of set. Or at least they used to do that.
In Brazil, game = match.