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

Quote from theloneracer

Part 2 of Kurobe vs Himeji

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL1ufXZb3mU

ha ! I had given up on it. One distant camera and a really annoying soundtrack

Kanto Uni-Ball Report:

They have most all the matches up for VOD now here, including last night's matches. So they're back up to speed and the few that aren't there are probably not going to make it for some technical reason. One that's not up (yet?) is two night's ago full set match between JWCPE and Kokushikan, two (bottom) teams most interesting to me this tournament. JWCPE for the Pipsqueak Killer, Kokushikan for Suzuna Kawasaki.

Suzuna is a sophomore, so we won't see her in V.League this winter but she was one of only two players selected for the Summer University Squad who wasn't from a Top Team.

JWCPE and Kaetsu have a makeup match to play so they are 1 behind

Another reason I'm enjoying JWCPE and Kokushikan is they are both fighter teams and they are improving, by force of will

• The first half of the tournament scheduled tops against bottoms. Most all the matches were 3–0
• Now we get tops v tops and bottoms v bottoms. Three of the fist seven matches went full set

Go Tsukuba

Quote from avid

sitenoise do we know how matches will be televised/streamed?

All V1 matches are on VTV. Enjoy the link.

No DAZN this year. Local broadcasters will show local games I'm sure. maybe get picked up by QQ

Quote from avid

that link doesnt work for me lol

is it free/geoblocked?

It's a pay service that is Japan only. I posted the link to let you know how fucking stupid and incompetent technologically advanced Japan is. That error page is over a year old

Quote from avid

oh. im sad now

one thing that might offer hope is that Thai fans are not likely to sit back and not be able to watch some of their favorite players , so there may be more streams in the wild as we move forward. i believe one of the prime goals of hiring Thai players is to sell broadcast rights there

Quote from avid

how am I supposed to #FreeSWP if I cant even watch smhhh

I think the future might be private Facebooger or unlisted Twitch groups. Start making friends there?

So I suffered through most of that Himeji Kurobe thing. A few takeaways:

• Kanasugi looked fired up and did well against her old team mates
• Lutz played the first set or two and is tall
• Hinano Michishita is making great strides as a HULK SMASHER
• Rinka Kosugi played OH, and back attacked a lot
• Mabashi didn't play
• Kurobe is at almost PFU level of luxury with pin-hitters. I don't think Pimpichaya is going to see much playing time unless she is super kick ass at serve reception and Mabashi isn't fully rehabbed
• [Edit] Chiyo Suzuki. the beach player has a good swing. The camera was so far away I thought it was Ukishima, who we know has a good swing

• Plak was there but didn't play. From a distance she looks thinner
• Saki Tanaka won't get benched for Plak. She's way better than Plak
• Kaya Watanabe could be a rising star if she isn't benched by Plak or the Captain
  
• Chihiro Sasaki - Remember that name

It's going to be difficult supporting Himeji any more if Nao Horigome continues to be relegated to the two card. Sakurai is so uninspiring and terrible at defense--which go hand in hand

Chihiro my Hero. If she hits 50% on the year it won't surprise me

This is so weird:

Himeji has a new mystery setter. She set the whole last set wearing a black warmup. I just assumed it was Moe Kiyota, but then Moe Kiyota showed up at set point to replace her. I wonder what's up with that, who could it be?

Quote from Playmaker

It seems Gunma Bank wants to overtake Kurobe in V1. How good are these girls?

Gunma Bank is a good V2 team, Champs two years running, but they lost one of their best players, 183cm MB Hibiki Suzuki, this summer to Saitama. They played Kurobe last year in the Challenge match and lost 0–3 twice and 1–3.

"Promote to V1" is a popular motivational slogan for a few V2 teams. I'm surprised ... did someone from Gunma explicitly call out Kurobe as the target?

As long as V1 teams have imports no V2 team will ever beat one of them unless a bunch of V1 players exit en masse to V2 teams as protest against being benched by said imports. That would be cool

Quote from sean1

183 that's exceptionally tall in Japan. MB or spiker?

MB.

Saitama also has a young 186cm MB Hirona Gonda