Wolfdogs keep last playoff spot with two wins
With the number of remaining games dwindling in the Japanese V1 Men’s League, losses can extinguish playoff dreams. At the start of the weekend, seven teams were still alive in the chase for the playoffs.
Suntory Sunbirds, Panasonic Panthers and Wolfdogs Nagoya were in the three playoff spots, while JTEKT Stings, Sakai Blazers, Toray Arrows and JT Thunders were trying to stay alive.
Suntory entered the weekend with a magic number (combination of JTEKT losses and Suntory wins) of four for clinching their playoff berth. The Sakai Blazers would be their opponent for their weekend series and with Sakai four wins behind third placed Nagoya, their playoff chances were also on the line.
On Saturday, Dmitriy Muserskiy dominated the scoring with 27 in the 3-0 Sunbirds sweep. Suntory also had a 12-1 blocking advantage in the match. On Sunday the Sunbirds took care of business 3-0, to maintain their first place position.
The magic number for Suntory is now at two, so they could clinch their playoff berth on March 13th. The Blazers were eliminated from the playoffs as they cannot match Nagoya on points even if they manage to tie them on wins.
Panasonic Panthers victorious
The Panasonic Panthers played Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler in their weekend series and completely overpowered their opponents in two 3-0 sweeps.
On Saturday, the Panthers outblocked Oita 9-0, outserved Oita 8-2 on aces and 10 fewer service errors. Poland’s Michal Kubiak had 29 points (4 blocks, 3 aces) over the two matches for Panasonic in the wins. Panasonic’s magic number (combination of JTEKT losses and Panasonic wins) is four and they could clinch their playoff berth on March 14th.
Kurek leads Wolfdogs Nagoya
Wolfdogs Nagoya entered the weekend with a two-win advantage over JTEKT Stings, but the Stings swept their two matches with VC Nagano Tridents 3-0 each.
Yuji Nishida for JTEKT was the spark plug with 22 (2 blocks and 5 aces) on Saturday and 23 (3 blocks and an ace) on Sunday in the Stings victories.
In Saturday’s Wolfdogs match against Toray Arrows, Poland’s Bartosz Kurek scored 34 points (3 blocks and 3 aces) to propel them to a 3-1 win. The win on Saturday maintained their two win advantage over JTEKT.
On Sunday, the Wolfdogs needed to come from 2-1 sets behind to win. In the fourth set, kills by Kenta Takanashi and then Hitotaka Kon gave them the set 26-24, to push the match into a fifth set.
At 13-13 in the deciding set, Toray’s Hungarian opposite Krisztian Padar gave the Arrows match point with a kill, but a Padar net touch tied the score for Nagoya at 14-14 and pushed the tiebreaker into extra points. Toray had four more chances at match point, while the Wolfdogs had two chances as the score reached 20-20 on a Kurek spike. A Takanashi kill gave the Wolfdogs another match point at 21-20. Padar had a chance to tie, but the Wolfdogs ended the match at 22-20 on a block, to claim a 3-2 victory.
Kurek had 40 points (3 blocks) and Takanashi 17 (1 block) in the Wolfdogs win. Padar had 31 points (2 blocks ) in the loss for Toray.
Nagoya’s magic number for a playoff berth (combination of JTEKT losses and Panasonic wins) is seven as they keep JTEKT two wins behind. Toray Arrows are still mathematically alive as they have more games remaining than any other team with nine, but they also need many losses from Nagoya and JTEKT to catch them.
Lastly, JT Thunders Hiroshima swept their weekend series with FC Tokyo, 3-0 on Saturday and 3-2 on Sunday. JT Thunders’ playoff dreams ended with Nagoya’s win on Sunday as they cannot match Nagoya on wins. FC Tokyo have played 10 five-set matches this season and have only won two of them. Australian Thomas Edgar led the Thunders with 53 points (6 aces and a block) over the weekend.
Match results for March 6, 2021
Suntory Sunbirds 3-0 Sakai Blazers (27-25, 25-21, 25-12)
Panasonic Panthers 3-0 Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler (25-16, 25-16, 25-13)
JTEKT Stings 3-0 VC Nagano Tridents (25-20, 25-21, 25-21)
Wolfdogs Nagoya 3-1 Toray Arrows (25-19, 25-19, 24-26, 25-17)
Match results for March 7, 2021
JT Thunders 3-2 FC Tokyo (20-25, 25-20, 25-13, 11-25, 15-13)
Suntory Sunbirds 3-0 Sakai Blazers (26-24, 25-22, 25-14)
JTEKT Stings 3-0 VC Nagano Tridents (25-17, 25-13, 25-22)
Panasonic Panthers 3-0 Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler (25-18, 25-14, 25-21)
Wolfdogs Nagoya 3-2 Toray Arrows (21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 26-24, 22-20)
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