Suntory maintain their lead in Japan’s V1 Men’s League
JT Thunders Hiroshima hosted Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler for their two match series in Hiroshima’s General Gymnasium this weekend. Oita who are at the bottom of the standings, surprised the hosts in the first set of their Saturday match, taking it 25-21. The Thunders then changed gears and Oita could not keep pace for the rest of the match, however, which ended 3-1 to Hiroshima.
The Thunders won the battle at the net with 8-3 blocks, three by Japanese national team middle blocker Taishi Onodera. Onodera was also nearly unstoppable spiking the ball with 12 kills on 14 swings.
Sunday’s match continued the block fest for the Thunders with 11 blocks to three for Oita. Thunders setter Akihiro Fukatsu had four blocks and Onodera again had three blocks. Combined with a seven kill advantage by Hiroshima, the Thunders swept the match 3-0 and the weekend series. Australians led their teams in scoring, with 20 points by Thomas Edgar for JT (two blocks and three aces) and Curtis Stockton scoring the same number for Oita (one block and three aces).
Meanwhile, Suntory Sunbirds faced off against the Toray Arrows in Osaka in their weekend series. In Saturday’s match, Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy helped the Sunbirds overcome a 0-1 deficit, to win the match 3-1. Muserskiy had 32 points on 29 spikes and 48 swings (two blocks and an ace).
In Sunday’s match, Muserskiy had 31 points, but seven of those points came from the service line as aces in the 3-1 win for the Sunbirds. Toray’s Hungarian opposite Krisztian Padar had 27 (an ace) in the loss.
Also this weekend, the Panasonic Panthers won twice to overtake the Wolfdogs Nagoya, who were not playing . The Panthers played 8th-ranked FC Tokyo and used a spiking advantage of 12 kills and six fewer hitting errors to sweep the Saturday match 3-0.
Kunihiro Shimizu and Poland’s Michal Kubiak each contributed 13 points for the Panthers.
Sunday’s match was tied at 1-1, but Kubiak then used his power to keep the Panthers in front and take the match 3-1. Kubiak’s 20 led Panasonic in the win and moved the Panthers into second place in the standings.
The last series of the weekend featured Sakai Blazers away to the VC Nagano Tridents. France’s Jhon Wendt led the Blazers in scoring both days with 37 points between the two matches, including five blocks in two 3-0 sweeps by Sakai.
Match results for February 13, 2021
Panasonic Panthers – FC Tokyo 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-23)
JT Hiroshima Thunders – Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-21)
Suntory Sunbirds – Toray Arrows 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-16)
Sakai Blazers – VC Nagano Tridents 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-21)
Match results for February 14, 2021
Panasonic Panthers – FC Tokyo 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-20, 25-19)
JT Hiroshima Thunders – Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-22)
Suntory Sunbirds – Toray Arrows 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22)
Sakai Blazers – VC Nagano Tridents 3-0 (28-26, 25-17, 25-19)
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