Hikari Kato will probably retire before she gets off the bench

Recently two V.League players (V2) have registered over at volleybox: Khandsuren Gantogtokh and Mmesomachi Ugochinyere Okekearu. My theory is that they registered to correct my misspelling of their name. I think I'll go around and misspell a few more. like YULU, that should bring her out of the house. She ignores me on that tweeter thing

Ayaka Araki Notice of Right Knee Surgery

■Surgery site

Right knee joint

■ Medical examination results

Right knee lateral meniscus injury

■ Complete cure

6 months

The time to recover from the injured state is undecided.

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Don't know what to think about this. She was getting left behind but I assumed that was her role. She came in stylin' and ready to rumble and helped Himeji win V2 Championship. But then Captain Sadakane showed up and showed her to the bench in V1.

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I will be leaving this season. For about three years at Victorina Himeji, there were many fun and happy things, but there were also many regrettable and painful things. At such times, I was able to overcome it with the help of my fans, sponsors, team front desk, staff, and all my favorite teammates.

Himeji must be clique-y

Too bad, really. I don't know that she will find much of a future elsewhere. Himeji was a good fit for her and the team. Or so I thought Same scenario as her stint with JT. When Brankica got out of the way, Kanasugi owned the Black Eagle, but then the kids showed up. She keeps getting showed up

Aliona Martiniuc also officially says good-bye

PFU also says bye-bye to:

Nao was one of the original "Tough Cookies", Naoko was known as "Cute Mama".

Enjoyed them and will miss them both, but the PFU transition is moving forward. They'll need another setter as all that's left is the girl with the biceps: #9 Haruka Miyashita Yamashita and high-schooler Yumika Kai. Setter will be vital to PFU's success with their new and improving swingers.

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Quote from QPL

I really loved Zayasu and Iwasaka.

Thank you. They need some love

That SAGA Red v White is worth taking a look at just to see Tiny Yuka Ikeya, the new libero, serve at the beginning. She looks like she barely has the strength to get it over the net on her first couple ... and then she hammers one, sorta, kinda.

But more importantly, why is it that this scrimmage match, filmed in a practice gym, has a proper frame rate, and at 720 looks way better than anything VTV can produce?

Queued up:

Team Retirees (Red) got clobbered 0–2 [12–25, 22–25]. Tiny Ikeya had like 9 aces and Shion Hirayama had about 60 points in the first set alone for Team White.

Poor Ayano Kojima (Red) got yanked on her prom night.

Misaki Inoue set for the White team Set 1, Manami Mandai Set 2. I don't think Mandai made a decent toss the whole Set. They won almost exclusively on tipping her bad sets over the net. That's not encouraging. It'll probably take her a year to fit the big pants, which is okay. I'm not ready to say goodbye to Misaki Inoue.

Game Changer News that doesn't mean a thing. It's meaningless, but it's kind of stuff dreams are made of.

[Notice of new players] Hina Kumamoto has been selected as a new player for KANOA Fukuoka. # 11 Hina Kumamoto

Birthplace Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture

KANOA Fukuoka used to be the Fukuoka Kasuga SeaCats who were destined to become the go-to organization for the whole Kyushu island of premium players until SAGA half-assedly moved in with plans and announcements.

Hina is just a "face" player in the twilight of her often injured career going to play volleyball in her home town. Big whoop, but still cool.

V.League should split into Three Divisions of 8 teams each

The best part is that relegation would be possible, and be a ongoing threat. As it stands now with 12 foreigner infused V1 teams, even the sucky ones hardly stand a chance of ever being relegated.

V.League has 22 teams right now. They could go 8,8,6 the first year. How they would decide to demote 4 teams to V2 without warning would be a real pisser but so what.

There are some worthy-of-V3 teams to choose from right now to make it 8,8,8:

1. Veertien Mie
2. KANOA Fukuoka

Those are the two I would pick based mostly on their business models. Veertien Mie is part of a well established organization and they kick fucking ass. It's just the lineup they have right now but let's go with it. The actual "Veertien Mie" team is a first year team culled from Mie Takada VC sala with the express aim of entering V.League--'Business' team vs 'Club' team.

KANOA Fukuoka, whatever. They have a nice location and a nice web site--that needs to be updated ASAP-- Hina and a few other V.League veterans.

Other teams that are often at the top of the National Comprehensive All Japan 6-Ball blah blah stuff:

• Yamanashi Central Bank Sporting Bears -- they win but that's a goofy name and I don't think they want to be V.Leaguers. They seem truly just women who work at a bank and play volleyball
• Club Ehime -- They've been around for a while but may be nothing more than a YWCA-level group (V3)
• Kurashiki Ablaze -- Don't know a lot about them but they're from Okayama and have their own magazine and practice facilities

And then there's:

• Artemis Hokkaido -- they don't even have a full roster yet but they have a beautiful vision that all V.League teams should emulate. They'd also expand volleyball to the nether regions.

Finally, there's Himeji's farm team:

• MaxValu Himeji. I don't know the particulars of how that could work, but in the last All Japan 2019 blah blahs ... they cheated by employing a "ringer", Ayumi Nakamura, and beat Forest Leaves, Kurashiki Abraise, Ligare Sendai (Arisa Sato's team), Toyota whomever, Fukuoka SeaCats and more. They lost only to Yamanishi Sporting Bears, Club Ehime, and Mie Takada VC sala. So they are, or were, at that level.

Quote from brahmin

Artemis probably has a fighting chance as does Veertien.

V.League would like to be at 12 teams for V1, it has always been the stated goal since the beginning of the new version in 2017-2018. This matches similar leagues around the world with 12 teams in the top division.

Sadly with so few teams to be in a V3 level, V2 is going to be bloated for a while. The pandemic is going to keep teams tied into corporate entities, or force them to work very closely with corporate entities.

I wonder what's going on with Kanoa Fukuoka. They had a good system and vision and then the pandemic devastated their money flow, SAGA moved in and the Kasuga girls had to resort to bake sales, etc. Now they've changed their name, and apparently their "minds towards entering the V.League", and the original "Kasuga" players left. I don't know what that all means. I blame SAGA coming in with their bully announcements.

So ... let's write them off. They weren't actually that good, anyway.

V.League is famous for sticking to its stated goals --LOL-- but 12 teams is fine for the top division. I'd just like to support a way for the bottom feeders to get relegated, and bring in new blood. That's what I'm all about=new blood. I can't get excited about one of the dual citizenship corporate teams winning another championship

Quote from bumpsetspike

Are there rumors of foreigners playing in Japan next season?

Edit: Lorenne is one I heard recently.

Some volleyblogger tweeted Lorenne signed with Saitama. Other than that I haven't heard anything. Japan is very tight-lipped about these things