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The inaugural season of the revamped women’s Daido Life SV.League in Japan is about to climax as the historic final showdown unfolds this week. A best-of-three championship playoff between Osaka Marvelous and NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki will take place on Friday, on Saturday and potentially on Sunday to determine the first SV.League champions.
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The iconic Ariake Arena, the venue that hosted the volleyball battles of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, will stage the entire final series between Osaka Marvelous and NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki. The first match is set to serve off on Friday, May 2, at 18:40 local time (09:40 UTC). The starting time of the second match on Saturday is 17:40 (08:40). If the series is tied at one win each, a third game will be played on Sunday at 15:10 (06:10).
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Osaka Marvelous have triumphed as Japanese champions three times before – in 2011, in 2020 and in 2021. Another five times they played in the final, but lost to settle for silver – in 2007, in 2010, in 2018, in 2022 and in 2024. Spearheaded by Belgian opposite Lise Van Hecke and Japanese favorites like Kotona Hayashi and Ameze Miyabe, and steered by coach Daisuke Sakai, Osaka dominated the regular season, cruising to the top of the table on a 37-7 win-loss ratio and 112 points. Then they hammered out 3-0 sweeps of both their quarterfinal matches against Astemo Rivale Ibaraki at home to move on to the semifinals. Last week they started off on the wrong foot against Denso Airybees Koriyama at home, losing the first semifinal in straight sets, but then recovered to win the next two, defeating their visitors from Koriyama by 3-1 and by 3-0 to progress to this week’s final.
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NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki are the defending champions of the previous two seasons in the Japanese league. They have already collected nine national titles with victories in 1988, in 1997, in 2000, in 2003, in 2005, in 2015, in 2017, in 2023 and in 2024, with four silver medals also in their showcase, earned in 1987, in 1996, in 1998 and in 2002. NEC’s head coach Takayuki Kaneko has two foreign stars – Brazil’s Lorrayna Marys and Thailand’s Ajcharaporn Kongyot – on his squad and relies heavily on Japanese players headlined by the likes of Haruyo Shimamura and rising star Yoshino Sato. The team from Kawasaki achieved a second-place finish in the regular season on 30-14 and 92, and moved through the quarterfinals on 3-0 and 3-2 at home against Toray Arrows Shiga. In the semifinals, they started off with a 3-1 win over their visitors Saga Hisamitsu Springs, who then managed to tie the series on the next day with a sweep of the second game. The deciding third match was also decided in straight sets, this time in favor of the home team, who advanced to its third consecutive championship final.
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The upcoming final will be a remake of last year’s championship showdown, the only previous time the two clubs clashed with one another in the deciding duels for the crown. Having lost both 2023-2024 regular season encounters with Marvelous, NEC Red Rockets beat them when it mattered the most, in the single-match final in early March 2024 by a hard-fought 3-1 (27-25, 32-20, 16-25, 25-17). This season, the two sides have already met four times. In their home double header in January, NEC won the first match in five sets, while Osaka swept the second. When Marvelous hosted a double header in April, they won both games, by 3-2 and by 3-1.
Women’s SV.League 2024-2025 championship final:
May 02, 18:40 local (09:40 UTC): Osaka Marvelous v NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki
May 03, 17:40 local (08:40 UTC): Osaka Marvelous v NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki
May 04, 15:10 local (06:10 UTC): Osaka Marvelous v NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki (if necessary)
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