Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2020-2021

Ai Okayama (8 years old), who lives in Kawasaki City, is the winner of the Floor Cleaning Towel Grand Prix. A fan for life.

The Winning Towel Design (approved by YOLO)

Quote from brahmin

You missed the Hello Kitty collaboration that was also this past weekend with NEC.

Article

I posted a few times about it but neglected to share these wonderful tote bags designed by Sarina Koga and Nanami Hirose:

Apparently there will be no Women's All Star game this season. In its stead you can vote in the "V1 Women's "First Half Best 6" project!" and enjoy some twitbag poll results

Fill in the form here

① Target department: [Opposite outside hitter] [Middle blocker] [Setter] [Libero] [Super sub]
② Team name:
③ Player name (full name):
④ Reason for voting:

Sarina Koga for OH

This stuff is so simple and meaningful in creating fan engagement yet NEC is the only team doing it (Himeji a little bit).

Personalized Calendars

In addition to being able to choose the photo of your favorite player every month, you can now choose the cover design! Why don't you create an original "variable calendar" that makes you feel close to your favorite players?

Provided in collaboration with Fuji Xerox.

Fans buy the calendar, and buy a ticket to the next Home Game to pick it up and feel all lovey dovey giving their money and their support to NEC.

Quote from Phoenix

So far, I don't think there has been any reports from the women's division so hopefully it stays that way. I read somewhere that NEC was given a warning for not following the audience limitation for their homegame but it's like way too late

I was wondering about NEC crowds. Seemed over 50% to me, but shouldn't that be the responsibility of the Arena?

Quote from Phoenix

I'm not so sure about that. I think they accommodated even more people after the success of their first homegame because they added stuff to their menu including beer and yakitori.

Women's basketball and football are completely remote for all teams. I don't know if figure skating allow crowds since it's such a huge thing in Japan.

And there's this:

I thought there were strict demarcation zones between fans and players. But for attendance I don't see how NEC, the team, the management, or the corporation could say "Hey! let's let more people in". That has to be on the Arena.

Quote from Phoenix

sitenoise First half best 6 do you agree?

Drews, Shimamura, Koga, Mayu, Yokota, Seki

That would certainly be a tough team

When I posted the only one I felt strongly about was Koga, so that's all I could muster. But Inoue as libero, for sure.

Then it gets tricky for me. I never consider imports for these kinds of things so I'd go with Kudou or Mabashi Saki Tanaka for OP since something is ailing our hero Kubota (and my hero Watanabe) these days. Kurogo is technically Toray's OP, and should certainly be considered, but it's hard for me to think of her as OP.

MB is complicated. The scorers (Shimamura, Yokota) aren't blocking and the blockers (Okumura, Yamada, Araki) aren't scoring. Mayu Oikawa holds the sweet spot performing well in both directions. I don't consider Hannah Tapp a foreigner, or Foluke for that matter, but rules are rules. Shimamura and Yamada Kasumi Nojima

Seki, yeah, but I still don't like her again yet. So I''ll wimp out to the 'popularity contest' aspect and vote for Misaki Inoue or Tamaki Matsui They are both skilled and lovely.

I'm not clear if that user is voting Mami Yokota for "Super-sub" or what. I don't think she qualifies for that but she does deserve some kudos. Super sub is Yuka Kitsui Nana Magota.

Speaking of NEC, the vbm post (night game) match interview with them (and Himeji) is word salad good. Both coaches talk about the (bright) future of watching volleyball while drinking beer

A couple nice quotes I liked to read:

--To Koga. About the last two consecutive goals scored in the match. Did you spike in that scene with the idea that you would definitely decide?

Koga: Yes, that's right.

You go girl! She knows.

Coach Kaneko: Fortunately, we have a lot of highly qualified and experienced players, so we are trying to find out which pattern is good for the team. Hirose's two-card change showed a blocking power, and if Yamauchi entered, it would raise it very much in the mood part

'Tis the season for college girls to enter V.League (or go 9-ball). A very exciting time for me, full of suspense, hope, and disillusionment. There are a lot of college players I love. So far 16 have joined V2 teams, 4 went 9-ball (but that's harder to track). The only ones joining V1 have gone to PFU, which, ya know .... They are both good players, a libero and an OP, but the big girl pants fit differently. I do think the libero, Kanoha Kagamihara from Tsukuba, will be in the starting lineup ASAP

Quote from Phoenix

There are also players from Suntory Sunbirds who tested positive that's why they backed out of the Empress Cup.

Same for the man version of Toray Arrows. Source

This pandemic is everywhere

A few colleges that were on the original combination for the All-Japan Championship ended up not playing (I never discovered why), and the recent Kanto Championships had 4 teams not play "for team reasons"

Quote from avid

I know V-League matches aren't easy to access, but this channel on YT has some from the analysis site

https://www.youtube.com/c/YuriBylichev/videos

I like watching matches from this angle, especially matches I've already seen. A JT bias, but they can be fun