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

Empress Cup Round 2

SAT 11 Dec 2021

10:00 JT v Kurobe

10:00 Toray v Toyota

12:00 Prestige v SAGA

12:00 Hitachi v Seitoku

14:00 Saitama v Tsukuba

14:00 Okayama v NIFS

16:00 Denso v PFU

16:00 NEC v Himeji

Hitachi v Seitoku tonight should be fun. I'll feel bad if Hitachi loses but won't be that surprised. Seitoku beat Hamamatsu but it wasn't a romp and Hamamatsu isn't playing well this year

Either way, I think Seitoku's two OHs are badass:

Risa Yajima 2nd year 172cm	Yui Hamamura 3rd year 171cm

Yui probably joins Toray next month. Meanwhile , 2nd year 184cm MB Airi Furukawa still doesn't look tough enough but seems to have a lot more control of her body than she did a year ago

Also - last night's Tsukuba victory over Brilliant Aries was ... bittersweet, or something, in that Brilliant Aries' setter, Miho Yokota, was 2 years ago MVP Champion Tsukuba's setter. It still weirds me out that Yokota got the MVP when Manami Mandai was the one doing all the setting and winning the best setter awards. Just can't explain it. I believe every starter on that Tsukuba glory years club of back to back championships has made it into V1 except the two MVPs. The other one was Haruka Maruo ... who went 9-ball, bless her heart

Someone should keep track of who plays OP set by set (if not play by play) for Toyota and send it to their coach. I don't think he knows

Toyota's defense is a comedy of errors. If the ball can take a bad bounce, it will. More than any other team they seem to play under the impression that "someone else will probably get it -- if not, then maybe I'll try". You can't play defense that way

At first it looked like Hitachi was just too big for the Seitoku pipsqueaks, but the high settin' headbands are kinda hanging around. I like the way Seitoku, and good high schools in general, play defense

I was told by someone that has followed Japan HS volleyball for a long time that this high set thing is a school/coach tradition, not something unique to this setter and these hitters. That would mean Saitama's setter Yamazaki was tossing this stuff to Mayu Ishikawa and Ai Kurogo back in the day

It's remarkable how, because of the camera placement/angle, the court SAGA is playing on looks half the width of the one Hitachi is playing on

Look out Hitachi 1–1

SAGA 2–0 Prestige ... 25–15, 25–15

It's Hikari Kato time

Quote from volleyb

I've already forgotten but before Okumu Oba's injury, who are the starting OHs for Hitachi? Who among Uesaka, Murooka and Osanai is on the bench?

It was solidly Fuyumi, Uesaka, Osanai. Murooka took over for Fuyumi

Both Seitoku's OHs walk around like they are riding an invisible horse

Notice how these HS MBs (both are pretty big, 184, 181 the lefty) don't do slides or quick tempo, front or back of the setter HULK SMASHES

They do traditional OP attacks and mini-pipe attacks (as front row players). YOLO (as HS MB) and some others used to do a 45 degree slide-ish thing from middle court to right front

Real Middle Blocker stuff doesn't start until college

Seitoku looks a little tired now

It was a good fight. I give 'em kudos

* trying to jinx them into a comeback so we can have a tie break

Saitama #12 Miiku Iwasawa, defensive specialist, is growing on me quite a bit. She roams the floor with her childlike gait like she knows what she's doing