Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2019-2020

  • Nana Sakamoto announced her retirement from Denso Airybees. She played in Germany 2018-19 season and Denso moved on without her :( She barely played this season.

    girls who played overseas, other than Koyier, Tashiro and Okumura got screwed.


    sakamoto played in Germany, did not even get a look from Nakata. Tominaga goes to Italy, gone as well after 2018. Nagaoka tears her knee as well.

  • Another convert to the modern V.League


    SAGA Hisamitsu Springs (Co., Ltd.)


    A little greedy going for a whole Prefecture rather than a city :rolll:


    They are going to keep their dual citizenship and fake second home (Kobe City in Hyogo Prefecture) for a little while but eventually ditch it in favor of Tosu, Saga.


    A new name will take effect on July 1st. Not positive if it will be "Tosu Hisamitsu" or "SAGA Hisamitsu", but if it's SAGA I will type it in ALL CAPS all the time.


    Source

  • 90 seconds of V.League libero action:



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eyTB57OhLE

  • Greatest hits of bench performances. They did a terrible job with this one. Denso is so far ahead of everyone else it isn't funny, but some of Denso best performances didn't make this reel. Saitama gets Silver Medal, but again, missing their best routines. PFU gets a distant Bronze. Not surprisingly, we'll never see the Okayama NoSmilers engage in these kind of shenanigans.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLTr6k-JZ-0



  • Just for the record: Fabiana was going to stick around for the Empress Cup, but since it's cancelled she's on her way back to Brazil.

  • 2019-2020 V.League All Defensive team:


    Haruka Miyashita (NoSmilers -S)

    Syuka Kaneda (NoSmilers -OH)

    Nao Horigome (Himeji -S)

    Kotoe Inoue (Denso -L)

    Yuka Sawada (NEC -S)

    Aki Momii (JT -S)

  • After just two years MB Natsumi Watabiki is retiring from Kurobe AquaFairies. All season long she was a delight. Finished 5th in the league in Blocks/set. Sad news



  • Is this an official new award?

    Just my official new opinion :) based on keeping the ball off the floor in front of the 3-point line: block coverage, tips, net bumpers, diving out of nowhere to get those crazy little popcorn burp balls. Setters are in the best position for this kind of thing. Setters who play defense until it's officially time to play offense, who see it as important --not a chore-- are Golden :rose:

  • Few more bye-byes.


    From Himeji:

    Ivna Columbo has been released. She was OK but didn't fit the mood of the team, imo. I'd like to see the girl who signed with NEC this past season, Berenika Tomsia, join them next year if she wants to continue playing in Japan. She wasn't good enough to crack NEC's rotation but she'd be a good smiling face addition to Himeji.


    OH/L Sakie Takahashi (C) and L Kyoko Katashita. These two were a couple of the original out-of-retirement players who started the whole thing off. They did their job. Sakie contributed a lot to the debut Championship season in V2 as receiving OH. Top notch in catching, but she's only 166cm so offense wasn't her forté. She played libero at the beginning of 2019-20 but got injured early on and didn't play for the rest of the season until the Challenge Match.


    In the V2 debut season when Sakie and Kyoko played together, along with Suelle Oliveira, as the reception machine they were solid as heck. In the V1 debut when Sakie played receiving libero instead of Kyoko it was disastrous. Sakie was pretty much the only Himeji player who could receive so the floor spacing was garbled. I would watch it differently now after reading QPL 's post in the LVSF thread. I knew something was amiss but didn't know how to describe it.


    Thanks Sakie and Kyoko for coming out of retirement and helping realize the Himeji Dream. Interesting to me that both of them, in their farewell comments, thanked their sponsors first (maybe that's not true in the original Japanese LOL). Himeji and Okayama are leading the way in the new V.League Era.

  • Speaking of Berenika Tomsia, she and her interpreter "retired voluntarily" from NEC Red Rockets. I enjoyed her, and enjoyed that she didn't play much. I also felt bad for her. NEC was not a good match, what with the 79 top-notch swingers they already had. I will continue to campaign for her to join Himeji next season (unless Kang So-Hwi wants to).

  • For haru_12 ...



  • LOL I thought that first one was Sanae, and was going to say: "See! She's right-handed" :P


    I tease Japan about their batting helmet hairstyle malfunctions, but they make for great electrified hairdo photos like that one.

  • Empress Cup Final Round 1 was scheduled to start tonight:


    Okayama Seagulls v Juntendo University

    PFU Blue Cats v Tsukuba Daigaku

    Higashi Kyushu Ryukoku v Chukyo University

    Fukuoka University v Himeji Victorina

    Aoyama Gakuin University v Kurobe AquaFairies


    ;( I have a favorite team in all those matches ;(

  • The VTV has some earlier Empress Cup Rounds up for viewing. I watched Arisa Sato's team, Ligare Sendai vs Prestige International.


    Prestige played Full Monty and clobbered Sendai, but Sendai showed some promise. They have a few good, aggressive swingers and a tall MB, Minami Amazutsumi, and Arisa. Their setter was wildly inaccurate from time to time, but that's V2 and below.


    Amazutsumi played for Hisamitsu (2007-11) and then Sendai Belle Fille (2011-17). Probably a home town girl like Arisa, maybe a friend, who brushed off the retirement dust to help make something happen in Sendai. It was a fun match but Prestige is a cracker team and were too much for Sendai.


    Apparently Sendai failed the licensing requirements (financial shortcomings?) and can't play V.League next season. What a bummer to have to struggle for another year of YMCA volleyball. They look better than that.



    Speaking of licensing, according to Japanese Wikipedia, Forest Leaves Kumamoto is making a comeback. I can't remember if they were on the list brahmin posted a while back. I don't know anything about them, but read their coach was sanctioned for inflicting corporeal punishment on one of the players 5 or 6 years ago. As best I can google-translate, he's still the coach now.

  • Okayama NoSmiler twenty-something teen idol Mayu Oikawa's little sister, Yuka, sign with GSS Tokyo Sunbeams.


    Not as good of a gig

  • 69th Kurowashiki All Japan Volleyball Tournament AKA Black Eagle Flag Scheduled for May 1–6 is Cancelled.


    Another one bites the dust :(


    Asian Club Championships Scheduled for May 2–9 will be next