70th All Japan Intercollegiate Women's Championship 2023 (Nov 28–Dec 3)

I smell a Tie Break with NSSU and Meikai unless that first set was just getting-yer-bearings and now NSSU is stable. They took set 25–17

Holy moly, Meikai #15 OH Aimi Tsuzuki just did the weirdest fast slide left I've ever seen. She's an award winner and tied with Tsutumi for the "ace" title ... Meikai plays a little shenanigan ball

Quote from volleyb

Yes, she can go to Prestige. I still want Yoshino Sato at Kurobe. I feel like Ameze can also go to Denso.

I'd go for all that

I checked the missed delivery earlier. Tsukuba won their first match in 55 minutes

There was another one of those slide left deals from Aimi Tsuzuki. It's bizarre

Tokai setter Mirei Samura looks a lot different than she did with Higashi. I sometimes think I'm seeing Tsukasa on the floor

NSSU better re-stabilize and whip out the countermeasures again or they are going home. Not that I want my NSSU girls to go home but the more Dark Horses the merrier. and I'm sort of falling for #6 the beach setter, Mayu Kikuchi. I googled her ... and the pics

Her beach partner #8, Nao Kinugasa isn't playing tonight. She played last year in the few matches I saw and was an impressive hitter

Aoyama hates to lose. When they get pushed to the brink they are so scrappy

Tokai 2–1 Aoyama

Aoyama can't win this tho because they can't win it in 4 and they can't beat Tokai in a Tie Break

NSSU Meikai Tie Break

Meikai 179cm MB #3 Erika Takamiya and that shenanigan baller OH #15 Aimi Tsuzuki played with Vietnam Kinh Bac Bac Ninh last year

FB

OMG

Meikai knocks out NSSU

That was a fucking match

An overtime Tie Breaker with a ref huddle challenge at Match Point for NSSU that they lost

Prestige should grab that tall Meikai MB who played in Vietnam. She's a senior

I was going to say they should also grab the shenanigan baller. She's a monster but she's only 2nd year. She starts in 2 and runs fast over to 4, jumps in the air and hits it back cross court. It's not a one-off because signals got crossed. It seems to be her preferred method of delivery

Meikai runs a lot of cool combinations

Quarterfinals tomorrow live on UNIVAS ... 11:00 JST start

Court B Ota Ward

Tsukuba v JWCPE

Nihon v Tokai

Court D Izumi City

Fukuoka v Kobe Shinwa

Meikai v Gifu Kyoritsu

The Combo has JWCPE moving on but Scorebox has it as only 2–1 against Juntendo, so I dunno. That's the match played in the basement. They must lag a bit reporting scores

Everybody got lucky. The SF are tragic

See you on Court D

Meikai University only promoted from Kanto Division 3 to Kanto Division 2 in the spring of this year. They're not even playing with the big girls in the Spring and Autumn Tournaments. I don't know how that all works but maybe they will promote to Division 1 next spring and put on the big pants. It's quite the accomplishment to be where they are in this All Japan Championship without being a Division 1 team

The Meikai Shenanigan Ballers lineup:

That's weird, isn't it?

Meikai did play Kokushikan a few weeks ago in a "Challenge Match" to try and promote to Kanto Division 1 ... and lost 2–3, so they won't be playing in the Big Girl Tournaments next year

Kokushikan won only one match in the recent Kanto Autumn League. Fukuoka knocked them out of this tournament 3–0 in Round 2