Recap of men’s SV.League second-leg semifinals
JTEKT Stings Aichi rejoice after winning their semifinal playoffs (source: @JTEKTSTINGS)
JTEKT Stings Aichi put together another upset of hosts and favorites Osaka Bluteon on Saturday and knocked them out of contention for the national crown, themselves advancing to the men’s Daido Life SV.League championship final in Japan. Also on Saturday at the Asue Arena Osaka, defending champions Suntory Sunbirds Osaka got back at Wolfdogs Nagoya and leveled their semifinal series, pushing it to a third-match decider on Sunday.
- Watch Japan’s SV.League on VBTV.
In Saturday’s second match of the series between Osaka Bluteon and JTEKT Stings Aichi at the Asue Arena Osaka, the home team put up a fight. It was enough to push the match to five sets, but not enough to push the series to three games. The visitors from Aichi celebrated another stunning success, 3-2 (25-16, 22-25, 15-25, 27-25, 15-12) over the regular season winners and favorites in these playoffs, and qualified for the championship final.
JTEKT’s opposite Kento Miyaura fired as many as five aces towards the victory and backed it up with a 53% success rate in attack to finish with a total of 24 points. American outside hitter Torey DeFalco piled up 24 successful swings at a 57% success rate, to which he added two kill blocks, emerging as the team’s leading scorer with 26 points. Brazilian outside Ricardo Lucarelli and middle blocker Kentaro Takahashi added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Miyaura’s counterpart, Yuji Nishida, also nailed five aces for Osaka and tied DeFalco as the best scorers of the match with 26 points each. Cuban outside Miguel Lopez put away 25 points for the home team, including three blocks, while American outside Thomas Jaeschke finished with 14 points, including four aces.
“I am very proud of this victory,” said Aichi’s Polish head coach Michal Gogol. “I would like to give great praise to the players and the staff. This season we have had many hardships and injuries, but we have overcome those difficulties and created a beautiful team. We dedicate our final match to all the fans who have continued to fight with us up to this point. If we continue to fight and move forward together, nothing is impossible. It was beautiful volleyball with a series of great rallies. I will never forget this match.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI5w6_mpg1p/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Suntory Sunbirds Osaka outplayed Wolfdogs Nagoya in a 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-23) straight-setter and tied their best-of-three semifinal playoff at one victory each. Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy led the way with 17 points, firing two aces towards his match-high tally. Polish outside Aleksander Sliwka raised three kill blocks and spiked at a 68% success rate to contribute 16 points to Suntory Sunbirds’ success, while his cross-court teammate Ran Takahashi added another 13. Nagoya’s Dutch opposite matched his counterpart Muserskiy’s 17 points on top of the scorers’ chart of the match. Slovenian outside Tine Urnaut finished with 10 points for Wolfdogs. The deciding third game of the series at Asue Arena Osaka on Sunday will serve off at 18:05 local time (09:05 UTC).
https://x.com/sun_SUNBIRDS/status/1916083305142968377
Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 semifinals:
Apr 27, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
QUICK LINKS
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/AsianVolleyballConfederation
AVC Twitter: click: www.twitter.com/AsianVolleyball
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/avcvolley/?hl=en
Mikasa Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/mikasasports_official
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation
AVC WeChat: Asian Volleyball Confederation
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.