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

Checking the Eastern League Summer Tournament. The Gym in Kanagawa (greater Tokyo) is low rent compared to the Arena in Okayama where the Westerners played. There's only two courts instead of three, and court B is poorly lit with cheap cameras. Bummer that, because the University Squad is playing on court B and I wanted to see them better.

This University Selection is Uni players from all over. I know a few of them. A little. Mostly just Hina Kawakami from Tsubuka University. They just beat Kurobe 2–0. LOL. Poor Kurobe

Kurobe's Captain OP Saki Maruyama was suited up as libero, alternating with Yurika Banba. That might be a good idea, as it allows for Smackdown Queen Akane Ukishima to play full time OP. I can already tell who my Kurobe Hero is going to be -- assuming she gets playing time beyond this summer league:

Ranna Shiraiwa

She plays Good D, dives well, receives well, is reasonably athletic with a good swing, flies in from downtown, has a good serve, and she's pretty cute. She joined Kurobe last season from Niigata University of Health and Welfare, which is way up there in Kurobe land, not one of the hip University Championship winners.

NEC beat V2 league's Kashiwa Angel Cross in a Tie-Break. Oh no. NEC is not going to be fun for me unless they find a Setter and Libero on the free market somewhere. Why are quality liberos in short supply in Japan? Makes no sense.

Hitachi, who barely beat new-to-V2 team Route Inn Hotels Brilliant Aries, needs a libero as well. Damn you Arisa Sato for abandoning me right when I need you most

Summer League 2019	Eastern Games Final Standings
Gold	Saitama Ageo Medics
Silver	NEC Red Rockets
Bronze	KUROBE Aqua Fairies
4th	Route Inn Hotels Brilliant Aries
5th	Hitachi Rivale
6th	Kashiwa Angel Cross
7th	University selection
8th	Prestige International Aran Mare
9th	Gunma Bank Green Wings
10th	PFU Blue Cats
11th	GSS Tokyo Sunbeams
12th	Breath Hamamatsu
Honors
MVP	Ami Wakamatsu (Saitama)
Fighting Spirit Award	Ayumi Yoshida (NEC)
Fresh Star Award (V1)	Ranna Shiraiwa (Kurobe)
Fresh Star Award (V2)	Ami Takahashi Brilliant Aries

Not nearly as exciting or as fun as the Western Games, except for Kurobe Fresh Star Ranna Shiraiwa. She got Mayu Oikawa-level camera time and deserved every minute of it, and I enjoyed every minute of it. She is my new hero

The V1 teams played mostly regulars (minus top stars or NT players) with one, maybe two, newcomers, except Saitama. Saitama played all newcomers with Misaki Inoue at setter -- and they didn't lose a set. Misaki is every bit as good as Miya Sato and Nanami Seki. She deserved the MVP for getting it done with children.

Newcomer Expansion team Brilliant Aries (which I assume is Brilliant Allies but for the "L" and "R" thing in Japan) played pretty well. I wonder why they came in with corporate sponsorship instead of going Pro? I don't know where they are based out of, but they have a good web site that is unfortunately tied to their corporate sponsor (route-inn.co.jp/volleyball).

The University Squad didn't do as well as I hoped

PFU, gosh. I dunno. Poor Kanon.

Poor me, as well. NEC played Aratani, Yanagita, Yamauchi, Tsukada (their main setter), Ueno (a main MB), and the only libero they have (a veteran at this point), one kid (but fighting spirit my ass), and vet Saki Minemura. I was shocked to see NEC finish in 2nd. They totally sucked. I guess it just exposes how sucky every other team was. Doesn't bold well for the real season unless Nanami Hirose saves everyone's butt. Sarina Koga lol.

Hitachi blew chunks as well with regular players. Woe is me

Someone should swipe Kashiwa's libero away from them. She's good.

A highlight was Miku Torigoe doing the post game interviews. She's got it going on all prettied up for prime time.

I'm surprised Hisamitsu actually posted something like this, and then I'm saddened by the news:

Quote

Minami Higane will inform you that she will not be able to participate in the training camp in Saga in July due to poor health due to ill health and other events scheduled to take place in The Saga.

I am very sorry for everyone who was looking forward to playing Minami Higane. We hope you will be able to recover.

It's not clear what is actually ailing the young woman, but it sounds like it's not an injury.

Crossing my fingers that "We hope you will be able to recover" is just funky translation, and things aren't as ominous as that makes it seem.

Whatever it is, let's wish her the best

Minami is the younger sister of Momoko who just retired from Toyota. Minami joined Hisamitsu early 2018 after winning the All Japan Intercollegiate Championship, and taking home the MVP Trophy.

I am so looking forward to her sashaying in and taking over as main setter.

V.League has announced how the Final Stage is going to play out. They've lopped off a couple days from the beginning (Jan 4&5) and it appears the Final 8 is more like traditional Quarterfinals. No Round Robin. Then Semis, and one Gold Medal match.

Source

That's the best I can suss. Waiting for brahmin

Hitachi has a dude on the sidelines who's not a dude. She's Toyota's previous Coach: Asako Tajimi

Source

So I did my bi-monthly stalk of Haruko Maruo's Tweeter (MVP and Best Blocker who does the Neriman full body jack knife impersonation from reigning Inter-Collegiate Champs Tsukuba). I'm looking for news that she's training with Victorina Himeji. There's a pic of her team, Panasonic Bluebells:

She's #7, second from right. She doesn't look as fit as she used to. Her Tweetbox Avatar byline says:

Quote

Gold orchid ☞ Tsukuba # 1 ☞ panasonic bluebells # 7 volleyball beer and sweet things that like sweet things

Bittersweet

Probably going to wait a year before coming to the V.League. Yeah, that's probably it

Oh YES YES YES

NEC Red Rockets, with regard to Newest player of the 2019 fiscal year, we will inform you as follows:

Mio Sato (佐藤 澪)

She's not Kotoe Inoue but she'll do. I feel bad for Manami Kojima, who had a good U-career with Aoyama Gakuin University but always seems to end up behind someone a little better since joining NEC in 2016 (Miku Torigoe, Sayaka Iwasaki).

I would so totally start Nanami Hirose, Chinami Furuya, and Wunderkid Haruna Soga aka YOLO this year at wings if I was coaching NEC.

Watching the VTV Cup. The cool thing about Mio Sato is that if you squint your eyes you can mistake her for Yuko Sano. She looks like a little bullet. Ready to fire.

Quote from forzalube

Do you know where can I find all rosters for vtv cup?

Afraid not. But funny you would ask, there is this volleybox site where I was starting to add the NEC members. It's up to someone to do it, like wikipedia, so I don't know if others will pitch in with what they know.

The Viet wiki page doesn't list squads

Quote from brahmin

https://asianvolleyball.net/new/vtv-binh-dien-cup/

Here is the bulletin page for the tournament.

That's for a different VTV Cup that happened in May. As far as I can tell AVC isn't helping this one, but their web site fools me, freezes my browser, and whatnot.

Controversy at the VTV Cup

NEC Red Rockets v North Korea. Hard fought match, down to 15-14 in favor of NEC in the Tie Break. Misaki Yamauchi serves for the win, NK lets it go, ref calls it in. NEC celebrate. There's no Challenge System. NK players, coaches, and staff are not happy, arguing with the refs. NEC does their post match walk-by the net and NK ignores them. No shaking of the hands. Still arguing. One NK player does an angry pull/hit at the net as the ref walks away.

The broadcasting channel doesn't show a replay with a close look so all you can do is watch the standard center-court-up-in-the-stands shot usually shown on a serve.

To my eyes, the ball looks out by a mile, maybe a dozen centimeters, not even close. What a bummer.

Have a look. Queued up to the serve:

Aw shucks, can't embed it here queued up. If you're interested, it's at 1:43:02

It's weird, the same Youtube URL goes to two different videos. One is 2:00 long (the one above) or there's a 3 hour version with the controversial serve at 2:44:17. Both are by the same broadcaster.

Quote from forzalube

The call is rotation foul, not ball in. I don't know if is really rotation foul or not, but that is the call.

Oh my Gosh! Well then ...

Thank you for clearing that up.

Still painful, though