Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2021-2022

    Quote from brahmin

    Tominaga has changed her name to Iwasaki for upcoming season after getting married.

    She's been married for years now. Is it a Japanese thing to only take your husband's name after you have a baby?

    I got nothing from Himeji's matches last night. I was way rooting for the Uni goddesses to whoop them. I may join Kanasugi in transfer hoping, take a break from Himeji for a season and see what happens. I don't like their setter. It's painful to see Nao Horigome smiling on the bench waiting for the two card. And I don't like the Captain. She's a decent player but her vibes are off, and she doesn't rock the squort


    I've got Kurobe, PFU, and Hitachi to root for, and Ligare Sendai in V2. Hard to say what's happening with the NoSmilers. First they lose Sasaki, then Sanae and Nishimura. Big blows to the empire. Angry Fu may be enough to inspire, but I'm not sure she'll make the first roster yet. They've got a few other things happening, and I can never turn my back on Kaneda or Haruka ... or Ugajin, or Narasaki, or Oikawa, maybe Aoi An, maybe Dennis Hopper, oops, I mean Yuzu Nakamoto. Okay, I can find a lineup in there but they better not lose their culture of defense. They played mostly scrubs last night , but I expected wanted more


    I hope NEC does well because I'm faithful. But big corporate dual citizenship teams who fail the transition to New Vision test and hire BCS™ are the enemy, unrootforable. NEC may get a temporary mini-maybe-pass because they are killing it in every other area



    Can't wait for the NT nonsense to be over so we can get back down to business :drink:

    Tonight's Player! matches live stream will be:


    JA Gifu v Okayama NoSmilers

    https://web.playerapp.tokyo/live/72138


    and


    Undecided: (a court second match winner vs b court second match winne )

    https://web.playerapp.tokyo/live/72139


    I could probably figure out who that's going to be but it pains me to look at the charts and graphs and whatnot. This is the weirdest damn tournament I've ever seen schedule/ranking/qualifying-wise. It didn't help that JT Marvelous declined participation.


    Himeji's upcoming schedule is:


    Day 2 , July 3 Saturday

    11:00Kumamoto vs Himeji
    14:00Kumamoto vs Himeji


    Day 3 , July 4th Sunday

    11:00KumamotovsHimeji


    WTF?

    Zamst signs sponsorship contract with Chihiro Sasaki and Kaori Mabashi (source)


    Quote

    "Zamst, a sports support and care product brand, announced that it has signed a sponsorship agreement with Chihiro Sasaki, who belongs to Victorina Himeji, a V1 girl, and Kaori Mabashi, who belongs to KUROBE AquaFairies.


    The background of this contract is to support both players who have been using Zamst products for many years, Sasaki who aims to win the V1 and Mabashi who aims to recover from a knee injury. ..


    Mabashi said: " ... I'm fighting with Zamst almost all over the body ... "


    A little awkward, but Sasaki and Mabashi are both winners so it's all good

    I didn't watch any of the Toray or Toyota matches last night because ... you know. I Just looked at the Toray v Toyota match and Mioko Yabuta is starting at MB :huh: . If Araki retires Toyota is down to 2 middle blockers: HS Champion Natsuki Suda, who's good, and Ayaka Matsumoto, who's tall.

    This is pretty special watching Miyashita and Xintian Fu (aka Angry Fu , shirt name Maika) work together.


    Girl's volleyball dream was to play with Miyashita. She was already in college and just called up the NoSmilers one day and said "Let me tryout".


    :rose:

    Damn, Toray squeaked out a 30–28 set one victory against West Uni. Come on girls

    What is it about playing Beach that informs the Indoor game?


    This West Uni Team has a Beacher and Kyoei Gakuen had two of them a couple years ago when they did really well. They aren't just dabblers. They're Champion Beachers. They seem to have a different set of chops. I like 'em


    Toray scrapes out a 2–0 victory

    Okayama's defense is a complete disaster. I may need medication if it doesn't magically improve by this fall

    SAGA 2–0 Okayama [25–15, 25–14] an affront to my sensibilities

    Tonight's Player! live stream match: JA Gifu v West University


    https://web.playerapp.tokyo/live/75248

    Final Results Western Tournament






    Fresh Star V1





    Fresh Star V2





    Fighting Spirit: Manami Mandai




    MVP: Rei Kudou


    What happened to the NoSmilers?


    :)

    In case anyone is wondering what kind of squads the V1 teams fielded in this tournament that's completely rigged to favor V1 teams ... these were their starting and pretty solid lineups throughout:


    Denso:

    Matsui / Kudou (Toukoku)

    Yokata / Moriya (Asano, Sato)

    Nakamoto / Hyodo

    Fukudome
    Their A-Team with who they have. (My Uni girls beat them). Asano and Sato are two large-ish promising MBs (Asano a HS Champion, Sato some U-Squad experience). Not as promising as Yokata but they are still teenagers. Yokata joined Denso after University


    SAGA:

    Mandai, Inoue / Nakagawa (Shirasawa)

    Hirayama / Hammy

    Kato / Inoue

    Ikeya

    Mandai and Inoue split time pretty evenly. Inoue got the call to start the Final


    Toray:

    Shirai / Nishikawa

    Ogawa / Osaki

    Nakata / Noro

    Nakashima

    Ogawa is a thing of beauty. Noro looks more aggressive than Nishikawa. A mostly rookie team. When they played Toyota it looked like a high school reunion


    Okayama:

    Played all their 49 players and lost three times to SAGA. Weirdly, Miyashita and Kaneda started against V2 JA Gifu. Miyashita played the 2 card throughout but that was the only Kaneda sighting I remember


    Toyota & Himeji

    Toyota better look forward to the KRob show. I don't know what else they got. Aimi Okawa looks okay but I don't like her. Himeji's best OH (imo), Aikiho Matsumoto, is likely out for the upcoming season due to torn ACL so they played scattershot and nobody but me cares about them anyway :) . Toyota and Himeji both gave a set to Forest Leaves :huh:

    Quote from sitenoise

    She's been married for years now. Is it a Japanese thing to only take your husband's name after you have a baby?

    in Japan, the current conservative government has gone to the extra length of ensuring that last names are first, except for foreigners, and that all married couples (heterosexual as LGBT couples are still not recognized) used the husband’s name. Hence why you hear Shinomiya for Erika instead of Araki.

    This is Japanese wacky (if I understand it properly):


    (1) The Final 3 will be played as a single-elimination tournament: One match. But the 2nd place finisher of the Regular Round gets ONE WIN as an advantage going into this one match tournament where the winner is decided by the number of wins. So if the 3rd place finisher of the Regular Round wins the match, a golden set of 25 points will be played after the match to determine the winner. The winner of this thing goes on to play the 1st place finisher of the Regular Round for the Final.


    (2) The Final will be a two-round tournament, and the ranking will be determined by the number of wins. If the number of wins is equal, a golden set of 25 points (1 set) will be played after the match to determine the ranking.


    Maybe not wacky, certainly creative


    Source

    Damn. Aya Watanabe joins Hitachi instead of Ligare Sendai . That's good for Hitachi, but if Hannah returns as well we won't get to see the new kids much or how Mai Irisawa might be developing or not developing.