NAGANO STUN TOKYO IN FIVE-SET DRAMA AS BOTH CLIMB UP THE TABLE

Recap of men’s SV.League 14th-leg matches

Photo source: @vc_tridents

Nagano Tridents beat Tokyo Great Bears in a dramatic five-setter on Sunday to produce the most unexpected result of the 14th leg in the men’s Daido Life SV.League in Japan this weekend. In the most anticipated double header, defending champions Suntory Sunbirds Osaka shut out JTEKT Stings Aichi in the first match, but won the second after a nail-biting tie-breaker.

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The first match between ninth-placed Nagano Tridents and fifth-placed Tokyo Great Bears went according to the expectations and the favourites produced a 3-1 (25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20) victory with outside hitter Rikuto Goto leading the way with a match-high 25 points, including three kill blocks. Polish opposite Maciej Muzaj added another 19 points towards Tokyo’s success, while his Danish counterpart Ulrik Dahl led Nagano with 23 points. On Sunday, however, the hosts struck back and celebrated a 3-2 (25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 15-7) win. Dahl fired 32 points for the winners. Outside Yuji Kudo added another 15. Muzaj led the squad from the capital with 27 points. This result lifted Nagano one spot up the current standings, to eighth place on a 7-19 win-loss ratio and 17 points. Tokyo also climbed one position up the table, to fourth place on 17-11 and 53.

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“This match highlighted the challenges we must overcome as a team,” said Great Bears’ Finnish head coach Kasper Vuorinen. “It is immeasurable how frustrating it is that we were unable to beat an opponent we should have beaten. Our next goal is to grow further as a team. Please look forward to the changes and evolution from here.”

JTEKT Stings Aichi were the team overtaken by Great Bears in the standings. After losing both of their games at Suntory Sunbirds Osaka, they dropped to fifth place on 17-11 and 45, while the defending champions consolidated in second place on 20-6 and 60. In front of about 5,700 spectators at the Ookini Arena Maishima in Osaka on both competition days, the hosts mastered a 3-0 (25-17, 29-27, 25-20) sweep, powered by Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy with 19 points, on Saturday.

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Sunday’s clash, however, was pushed to the overtime of the tie-breaker before Suntory Sunbirds could celebrate another victory, 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 25-18, 16-14). This time Muserskiy raised five kill blocks to finish with 28 points, supported by outside Ran Takahashi with 20 points, while Aichi’s American striker Torey DeFalco delivered a match-high 30 points, including two kill blocks and an ace. His Brazilian teammate Ricardo Lucarelli impressed with four aces and three kill blocks to tally a total of 17 points.

“The game unfolded completely differently from yesterday. Stings Aichi had a lot of attacks from their middle blockers, but we somehow managed to find a solution,” commented Suntory’s French head coach Olivier Lecat. “I am satisfied with the result. We were able to carry the game without giving up no matter what the situation was. This is very important for the team, and I think this kind of tenacity will be necessary in future battles.”

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Table leaders Osaka Bluteon hammered out two straight-set home wins over Hiroshima Thunders to improve to 23-3 and 68, while leaving the opponents on 11-17 and 33 in sixth place. Cuban outside Miguel Lopez spearheaded Osaka to Saturday’s 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-14) shutout with 20 points and to Sunday’s 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-23) with another 21 points.

Fuelled by Nimir Abdel-Aziz, third-placed Wolfdogs Nagoya also mastered two straight-set wins at home over Toray Arrows Shizuoka to improve to 21-7 and 64, pushing Toray Arrows down to ninth place on 6-20 and 19. The Dutch opposite top-scored 19 points towards Saturday’s 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21) shutout, and another 25 towards Sunday’s 3-0 (25-20, 29-27, 25-18) victory.

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Bottom-placed Voreas Hokkaido managed to take a point away from their trip to Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers. The home team swept Saturday’s game by 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-22) with a 21-point match high from Canadian opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans, but on Sunday they had to mount a furious comeback from two sets down before celebrating a 3-2 (21-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 15-9) victory. Vernon-Evans was once again the best scorer of the match, with 25 points to his name, while Voreas’ opposite Yu-Sheng Chang from Chinese Taipei put away 24. Sakai stand seventh on 10-16 and 32, while Voreas trail in 10th place on 2-24 and 11.

Another five double headers will be played next weekend, February 8 and 9.

Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 15th leg:
Feb 08, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
Feb 08, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): Toray Arrows Shizuoka v Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers
Feb 08, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): JTEKT Stings Aichi v Voreas Hokkaido
Feb 08, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v Nagano Tridents
Feb 08, 15:05 local (06:05 UTC): Tokyo Great Bears v Hiroshima Thunders
Feb 09, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
Feb 09, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): Toray Arrows Shizuoka v Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers
Feb 09, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): JTEKT Stings Aichi v Voreas Hokkaido
Feb 09, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v Nagano Tridents
Feb 09, 14:05 local (05:05 UTC): Tokyo Great Bears v Hiroshima Thunders

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