MERCURY RISING IN JAPAN AS STAR-STUDDED SEMIFINALS ABOUT TO SERVE OFF

Watch the men’s SV.League in Japan live on VBTV

Japanese champions Suntory Sunbirds ready to defend their title (source: svleague.jp)

With regular season winners Osaka Bluteon and runners-up Suntory Sunbirds Osaka joining quarterfinal winners JTEKT Stings Aichi and Wolfdogs Nagoya in on the playoff fun, the two best-of-three semifinals in the men’s Daido Life SV.League are about to take place this week – on Friday, on Saturday and potentially on Sunday. Based on their regular season standings, Bluteon and Suntory Sunbirds have earned the right to play hosts to these matches, so all semifinal games will be held at the Asue Arena Osaka. On each of the three competition days, the Osaka v Aichi game is scheduled at 13:05 local time (04:05 UTC), while the Suntory Sunbirds v Nagoya game is set to serve off at 18:05 (09:05).

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Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi

With a solid line-up of Japanese national team players highlighted by the likes of Yuji Nishida, Tomohiro Yamamoto or Akihiro Yamauchi, and foreign stars like USA’s Thomas Jaeschke and Cuba’s Miguel Lopez, and trained by prominent French coach Laurent Tillie, Osaka Bluteon topped the final regular season standings on a 37-7 win-loss ratio and 106 points.

Also with a squad packed with world-class players like Masahiro Sekita, Kento Miyaura, Kentaro Takahashi, USA’s Torey DeFalco or Brazil’s Ricardo Lucarelli, and coached by Poland’s Michal Gogol, JTEKT Stings Aichi produced a record of 26-18 and 71, probably well below the team’s potential, and finished in fourth place, way behind the top three in the standings. They did well in the quarterfinals, closing their home series against Tokyo Great Bears with two four-set wins, and seem set to face Osaka more evenly matched than the regular season positions or the season’s head-to-head record may suggest.

Aichi won only one of the six encounters with Osaka, in five sets on the road back in November. Bluteon took the other five, but when they last met about a month ago, the two sides put up another five-set battle.

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Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya

Defending champions and reigning Emperor’s Cup holders Suntory Sunbirds Osaka collected the highest number of points during the regular season, 107, but finished second to Osaka Bluteon with a slightly lower win-loss ratio, 36-8. There is no shortage of high-caliber players in French coach Olivier Lecat’s line-up, headlined by Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy, Polish outside hitter Aleksander Sliwka and Japanese internationals like Ran Takahashi or Taishi Onodera.

Wolfdogs Nagoya stopped short of qualifying directly for the semifinals after finishing third in the regular season on 35-9 and 104, just a win behind Suntory. In their quarterfinal playoff at home, they beat Hiroshima Thunders first in four sets and then in three to win the series. Powered by their Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz, who was the top scorer, the most efficient spiker and the most efficient server of the regular season, and other top-notch athletes like captain Kenta Takanashi or Slovenia’s Tine Urnaut, and guided by Italian coach Valerio Baldovin, Nagoya are set to take on Suntory in a race for the spots in next week’s championship final.

Three of the six encounters between the two teams in the SV.League were resolved in tie-breakers. None of the other three finished in straight sets either. Only in the Emperor’s Cup semifinal, Suntory managed a 3-0 shutout of Nagoya. The season’s overall head-to-head record stands at 4-3 in wins Wolfdogs’ way.

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Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 semifinals:
Apr 25, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi
Apr 25, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
Apr 26, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi
Apr 26, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
Apr 27, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi (if necessary)
Apr 27, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya (if necessary)

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