Ishikawa, Miyaura and Takahashi lead the way with 20+ points each
Even mighty Brazil failed to stop Japan’s winning streak in Volleyball Nations League 2023 as the two teams met in a Pool 3 match in Orleans on Thursday. The table leaders edged the world’s number two team to claim a tight 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 18-16) victory, their seventh since the start of the competition. However, Japan lost their first point, so now they have 20 on top of the current standings. Brazil are fourth on a 4-2 win-loss record and 13 points.
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Three Japanese players topped the scorers’ chart of the match on 20+ points each. Outside hitter and captain Yuki Ishikawa delivered the match high of 27, including two aces, followed by opposite Kento Miyaura with 24, including an ace and a block, and outside Ran Takahashi with 21, including two aces.
Miyaura and Takahashi registered high success rates in attack, 59% and 61%, respectively. Opposite Alan Souza was Brazil’s leading scorer with 20 points, all spikes.
While Yuki Ishikawa was taking care of business in attack, Japan fired as many as five aces to dominate on the court throughout the first set and reach a quadruple set point at 24-20. Brazil denied the first three opportunities, but on the fourth, Ran Takahashi put an end to the set at 25-23. Japan stepped up their spiking effort in set two, with Ishikawa continuing to spearhead the offence, and stayed well in control. They opened up a comfortable gap and kept pace until Takahashi again, this time with a blistering pipe shot, closed the set at 25-21.
Ran Takahashi tips the ball against Alan Souza’s block
Brazil struck back in set three. After 5-5, they broke away and never looked back. Outside hitter Henrique Honorato took charge of the attack and led his team to an emphatic 25-18 win. Japan’s improved attack in the fourth set was offset by some great Brazilian blocking. Middle blocker Flavio Gualberto put away three stuffs and playmaker Bruno Rezende added one to help their team prevail on the way to leveling the match. Opposite Alan Souza was quite productive in offence, but in the end it was outside Ricardo Lucarelli who hammered the 25-22 set winner.
The tie-breaker was really competitive. Kento Miyaura was on fire to give his team a slight lead, but the gap never exceeded two points and the set went to overtime. While Miyaura and Ishikawa’s powerful hits kept bringing in those match points, finally, it was Takahashi who converted one with a block-out shot for 18-16.
“I can’t believe this!” exclaimed Takahashi after the game. “We trained a lot for this match against Brazil and came out to give everything on the court. So it was a really good game today. Brazil have a lot of great players and we are a young team, still growing up, but it doesn’t matter. We had to play our volleyball…”
In their next matches on Saturday, Japan will face Argentina at 13:00 local time (11:00 UTC) and Brazil will lock horns with Slovenia at 16:30 (14:30).
Kento Miyaura tries to penetrate the solid Brazilian block
Later on Thursday in Orleans, Canada will meet Bulgaria at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC) and Slovenia will take on Cuba at 20:30 (18:30).
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