Japan - V.League V2 (Division 2, Women) 2021-2022

  • The teams that win the tournament does that mean they'll qualify in V2? I never found out how Ligare entered V2

    Sendai didn't get to V1 by winning anything


    9-ball and 6-ball are two different worlds


    The current V9 Champs Panasonic Bluebells play both, but their 6-ball stuff is mostly just for exercise. They played a practice match against SAGA recently I think you know about. They play 6-ball in the National Sports Festival (The NSF quit including 9-ball in 2010), and they play 6-ball in a local/regional tournament or two and in the All Japan 6-person Volleyball Business Team Selection Championship. The Bluebells have said explicitly that they like playing 6-ball tournaments but have no plans at this time to be serious about it, to grow it towards V.League


    Gunma Bank used to thoroughly dominate the 9-Ball world. When the National Sports Festival stopped including 9-ball, Gunma Bank transformed into a 6-ball team and finally entered V. Challenge League II in 2015


    I can't speak to how Gunma Bank got into V.League in 2015, but as of the "New Vision" 2018 V.League it's all about the S1,2,3 Licenses Business which has turned out to be mostly bullshit. But there are bottom line requirements like having a real-ish Coach and proving you have some kind of sustainable business plan with sponsors and such, and some skilled players and a decent fucking web site :) You can't "win" your way into V.League, but your team should be out there playing/winning in Regional Tournaments and The National Sports Festival, maybe making your way to the Empress Cup Final Round by winning in its Prefectural and Regional Rounds. Hopefully you also have strong support from your local/regional Volleyball Association




    Himeji (kinda) tried to buy their way into V.League by taking over the players of some defunct Challenge League team but not enough players agreed to sign with them. So it took them an extra year to get in. They had a Coach, Money, famous people, and a business plan. It wasn't going to be hard for them to get in.


    Ligare Sendai (almost kinda) tried to do the same thing by taking over, or merging or something, with the defunct Sendai Belle Fille team. I wrote a little bit about it in a post on the first page of this thread


    Forest Leaves used to be in V2 but their mothership crashed financially so they took a couple years off to re-group. Pity them. They were 4th place in 2017/18 Challenge League and would have entered V1 in 2018/19 (top 4 teams were invited) with the "New Vision" and expansion if they hadn't crashed. That's how PFU, Okayama, and Kurobe got in


    Veertien Mie will enter V2 2022/23 season. They are an established organization with a boys team already in V.League. The Veertien Group (or whatever you want to call it) basically transformed another Mie Prefecture team Mie Takada VC sala into Veertien Mie girls. They know what they are doing and are making a quick entrance into V.League shortly after forming


    Artemis Hokkaido will be the next team to enter V.League, probably 2023/24 season. Take a look at their web site. That's all you need to know ( they do need to host it securely --https-- but I give them a pass for now)


    KANOA Fukuoka are likely next in line, but they're mostly Tweetboxers. Good luck with that


    There are a couple old Challenge League teams attempting a comeback of sorts: Osaka Superiors and Toyota Sunpiena, but until they can build a respectable web site I don't care about them


    btw - There are V9 Champ League threads here

  • Hiroshima Oilers have only 12 players rostered. They terminated their fan club. I won't be surprised if they fold after this year :(

  • Forest Leaves is on their way to winning their first ever V.League match . Up 2–0 . A little sad it's against Chiba Angel Cross, as I have recently become fond of them, but if it was going to be, Chiba is the likeliest target

  • Those mean spirited nurses in the making at Chiba Angel Cross showed no respect for the mental health of the down and out Forest Leaves. They decided to come back from 0–2 and defeat the beleaguered girls from Kumamoto on their home court --ON VTV-- and deny them their first ever V.League win. Sad ... but okay. I like Chiba Angel Cross :)


    Home [-] Away
    Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Stats

    Breath Hamamatsu 3–0 Hiroshima Oilers

    25-18

    25-13

    25-20



    75–51

    Forest Leaves Kumamoto 2–3 Chiba Angel Cross

    27-25

    25-22

    18-25

    24-26

    10-15

    104–113

  • 2022.01.09 Results

    Home [-] Away
    Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Stats

    Hiroshima Oilers 0-3 Chiba Angel Cross

    24-26

    14-25

    16-25



    54–75

    Forest Leaves Kumamoto 1–3 Breath Hamamatsu

    23-25

    17-25

    25-20

    18-25


    83–95


    In some way I feel more bad for Hiroshima than Forest Leaves


    I did just notice Hiroshima signed four new players so maybe they won't fold. At least Forest Leaves seems to have a supportive fan base --in the face of never winning a game yet--

  • Prestige International announces the departure of Yurika Mizoguchi


    Mizoguchi, who had been ill since December last year and had been going to the hospital, did not recover from her symptoms and was advised by a doctor to take a rest. In the meantime, Mizoguchi offered to leave the team because she didn't want to bother them



    Sad for her and Prestige. She was their only libero after superstar Sumiko Mori retired. It's going to put a big dent in the Prestige defense. And they play the Gunma BCS this weekend for 1st place

  • Uh oh, feels like dominoes ;(

  • Brilliant Aries v Ligare Sendai (Arisa Sato) live


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlR8oeOXd4s


    Embedding the link says the "live event is no longer available" but I'm watching it. And it's a good professional stream

  • 2022.01.15 Results

    Home [-] Away
    Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Stats Video

    Chiba Angel Cross 3–0 Forest Leaves Kumamoto

    25-18

    25-14

    25-22



    75–54

    YT

    Brilliant Aries 3–1 Sendai

    25-17

    23-25

    25-22

    27-25


    100–89

    YT

    Gunma Bank 3–1 Prestige International

    25-19

    25-14

    16-25

    25-16


    91–74

    IG


    Give the girls from Kumamoto (also some kind of health care workers in training) major props. They are maintaining an upbeat and chipper attitude in the face of never having won a match since they re-entered V.League for the 2020-21 Season. Especially It-Girl Ranna Shiraiwa. She's the leading Scorer in V2 right now -- which is meaningless except insofar as it suggests she's trying to do her best. I hope they can win a match this year, and hope it's not against a team I don't want to lose :)


    Brilliant Aries/Sendai was a marvelous match, and a great video stream. My favorite player, OP Yui Takano, got a lot of playing time -- which is a first this year. She basically got benched by newcomer MB Akari Miyata, and Sendai changed their game to accommodate her. Turns out Miyata is a good player. She's leading the league in blocks/set (.86) and 5th in Attack. But they aren't winning like they should be. Their defense is weaker without Yui, and their overall game has less full team cohesion. One of those situations where trading defense for offense doesn't (or hasn't yet) resulted in wins -- sort of like Japan NT at the Olympics :S


    Gunma Bank's win over Prestige gives them a first place finish at the end of a lopsided Round 1. Lopsided in the sense that some teams have played 7 matches while others have played 11, but it's the halfway point of the Season so I'm calling it. I didn't see the match because that sideways Instashit streaming is nonsense, so I can't say what the impact on Prestige was of losing their only libero Yurika Mizoguchi


    OH Nodoka Nagao filled in at libero and went 50% on 26 touches. This is the first time she's been on court this year. Too bad for Prestige. I had them pegged as the most likely to thwart Gunma Bank's BCS plans of winning a third straight season

  • Ranking at the midway point of the season:

    # Team Matches W L Pts W% Set W
    Set L
    Set%
    Pts W
    Pts L
    Pt%
    1 Gunma Bank 8 8 0 23 1.00 24 5 4.80 704 570 1.24
    2 Brilliant Aries 10 8 2 23 0.80 26 14 1.86 953 853 1.12
    3 Prestige 9 7 2 21 0.78 23 8 2.88 745 632 1.18
    4 JA Gifu 10 5 5 15 0.50 21 21 1.00 913 941 0.97
    5 Chiba 11 5 6 14 0.45 19 23 0.83 888 926 0.96
    6 Hamamatsu 7 4 3 11 0.57 15 13 1.15 629 624 1.01
    7 GSS Tokyo 8 3 5 10 0.38 14 18 0.78 682 733 0.93
    8 Sendai 7 2 5 6 0.29 8 16 0.50 539 580 0.93
    9 Hiroshima 8 2 6 6 0.25 10 20 0.50 613 693 0.88
    10 Forest Leaves 10 0 10 3 0.00 8 30 0.27 790 904 0.87
  • A new coronavirus-positive person was generated from JA Gifu Rioreina officials


    The Chiba v JA Gifu match tonight is canceled


    :(

  • I still think Brilliant Aries has the best team on paper and in fact. But they're doing weird things with their lineups, like OHs moving to libero or MB or OP, and OPs to OH. I'm not sure how it will play out. They haven't played Gunma Bank yet but play them the next two weekends in a row. That should be the decider. Teams in V2 play each other twice this year


    At the end of it the top four teams do a round robin. The top two finishers play the Challenge Match. The bottom two, I dunno. The Round Robin is decided by Wins with Points as the tie-breaker. Teams are given advantage points going into the Round Robin according to how they finish the Regular Round. Things could get spongy

  • 2022.01.16 Results

    Home [-] Away
    Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Stats Video

    Chiba – JA Gifu (Postponed)








    Prestige International 3–0 GSS Tokyo

    25-21

    25-23

    25-19



    75–63


    Brilliant Aries – Hiroshima (Postponed)








    Gunma Bank 3–2 Breath Hamamatsu

    25-23

    25-18

    23-25

    20-25

    15-13

    108–104

    YT


    Hamamatsu, who aren't playing very well this year almost upset Gunma Bank. They beat Brilliant Aries earlier. They could have been the great spoilers. But, alas ...

  • Dominoes :(