THRILLING SAGA AT ARIAKE ENDS SUNTORY’S WAY

Recap of men’s SV.League first-leg final

Suntory Sunbirds Osaka edged ahead in the men’s Daido Life SV.League championship final in Japan with a dramatic win over JTEKT Stings Aichi in Saturday’s first match of the best-of-three series. In a thrilling five-setter, the defending champions mounted an incredible comeback from two sets down with all three of the winning sets pushed deep into overtime and including a 26-24 tie-breaker, as they moved to within a victory of the inaugural title in the revamped competition.

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An impressive eight kill blocks from Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy, including the match winner, were instrumental in Suntory Sunbirds’ incredible 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 26-24, 32-30, 26-24) reverse sweep. 

Muserskiy piled up a match-high 40 points towards the victory, also featuring an ace and 31 points in attack at a 50% success rate. Middle blocker Taishi Onodera added another four stuffs to finish with a 12-point total. Outside hitters Alain De Armas and Ran Takahashi put away 15 and 12 points, respectively. Aichi’s valiant effort was led by opposite Kento Miyaura with 26 points and outsides Torey DeFalco of the United States (three aces and three kill blocks) with 25 and Ricardo Lucarelli of Brazil with 22.

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“I am at a loss for words, but it was a truly amazing match!” exclaimed Suntory Sunbirds’ French head coach Olivier Lecat. “First of all, I would like to congratulate both teams for advancing to the finals. They played great volleyball, with incredible intensity and an unforgettable match. I know this is only the first game, but the whole match was like a tightrope walk and could have gone either way. Both teams were well prepared and played very high-quality volleyball. However, we are aware that we were far from playing our usual style in the first two sets. Our determination to never give up until the end led to this great result.”

The championship series will now move to the LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY, which will host the second game on Monday and, if needed, the third on Tuesday.

Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 championship final:
May 05, 16:10 local (07:10 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v JTEKT Stings Aichi
May 06, 16:10 local (07:10 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v JTEKT Stings Aichi (if necessary)

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