The new Japan women's national team has started off with Turkish coach Akbaş.
With the retirement of Sarina Koga, who supported the team as captain and absolute ace until last year, this tournament began with concerns about the absence of a point scorer.
However, when the match began, they won four matches in a row in straight sets without dropping a single set in the first week, and although they were sadly defeated in the second week by Italy, the gold medal winners at the Paris Olympics, and China, who were cheered on by huge home crowds, they have recorded a good record of six wins and two losses so far.
They also finished in 5th place in the qualifying round, placing them within the range of qualifying for the final round.
Results so far
Week 1: Ottawa, Canada
vs Netherlands
3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-16)
vs Serbia
3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-13)
vs Canada
3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-19)
vs Dominican Republic
3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-9)
Week 2: Hong Kong (China)
vs Thailand
〇3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 15-11)
vs Italy
●2-3(23-25, 25-16, 15-25, 25-20, 17-19)
vs china
●1-3(15-25, 12-25, 25-15, 22-25)
vs Czech Republic
○3-0(25-22, 25-17, 25-20)
Rankings after Week 2
1 Italy 8 wins 0 losses 22 points 24/5 sets
2 Poland 7 wins, 1 loss, 21 points, 23/8 sets
3 Brazil 7 wins, 1 loss, 20 points, 21/7 sets
4 Türkiye 7 wins, 1 loss, 19 points, 22/8 sets
5 Japan 6 wins, 2 losses, 18 points, 21/8 sets
6 China 5 wins, 3 losses, 15 points, 18/13 sets
7 Germany 4 wins, 4 losses, 14 points, 18/16 sets
8 USA 4 wins, 4 losses, 11 points, 15/16 sets
9 Czech Republic 4 wins 4 losses 10 points 14/16 sets
10 Dominican Republic 4 wins, 4 losses, 9 points, 13/18 sets
11 France 3 wins, 5 losses, 10 points, 15/18 sets
12 Netherlands 3 wins, 5 losses, 10 points, 13/18 sets
13 Bulgaria 3 wins, 5 losses, 9 points, 14/20 set
14 Belgium 3 wins, 5 losses, 8 points, 11/19 set
15 Canada 2 wins, 6 losses, 6 points, 11/22 set
16 Thailand 1 win 7 losses 5P 8/22 set
17 South Korea 1 win 7 losses 4 points 8/23 set
18 Serbia 0 wins, 8 losses, 5 points, 12/24 sets
A more detailed ranking table can be found here
https://vnlw.volleystation.com/en/phase-3451-vnl-2025-women/standings/
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The reason for the success is the change in the role of the opposite and the serve
The reason for the team's success is the opposite position, located diagonally opposite the setter, which has changed significantly since last year.
Until last year, Kotona Hayashi was placed in this position, and she played a defensive role. However, this year, Yukiko Wada was placed in the position, and like other foreign teams, she was exempt from receiving serves and was given the offensive role of always attacking, regardless of whether she was in the front or back.
As a result, attacks that were biased towards the left side until last year are now being used across the full width of the net at all times this year, and this, combined with Japan's natural speed, is resulting in a high success rate for attacks.
In addition, not only opposite Wada, but also outside hitter Ishikawa Mayu and Sato Yoshino, all three of the side attackers, have high offensive power to begin with, and all three have the ability to cut off high balls and score points.
In the overall attack score rankings, these three are ranked highly: Wada in 3rd place (130 points), Sato in 8th place (108 points), and Ishikawa in 10th place (106 points).
Setter Nanami Seki, who has experience in the Italian league, is able to consistently deliver fast, high sets (toses), which also creates a sense of stability for the team.
Furthermore, Japan's greatest weapon in this tournament is its serve.
Although the players used a variety of serves, including jump serves, jump floater serves, and hybrid serves, all of them delivered effective serves with sharpness and precision, leading to many break points, either as aces or with counterattacks based on their natural defensive ability.
In particular, Ishikawa has 13 service aces so far, putting her third overall in the serve rankings, while Sato is in 11th place with nine aces, and middle blocker Miyabe Airi is in 20th place with seven aces.
In terms of team service aces, he ranks first with 47.
MVP so far
Yukiko Wada
Position: Opposite
140 points (attack 130, serve 6, block 4)
Attack Effectiveness Rate: 36%
She is a key player for the new Japan Women's National Team, producing a large number of points from the right side as Japan's offensive opposite.
In the female opposite field, where players are typically over 190cm tall, Wada is very small at 174cm, but she has speed that surpasses the rest and delivers sharp spikes from both the front and back.
Many foreign opposites are tall but tend to hit the ball at a somewhat slower pace, so if the right side is constantly attacking so quickly, it will be difficult for the opposing blockers to keep up.
In addition, he has a high ability to make high balls and a strong jump serve. Of the three side attackers with high scoring ability, Wada is the one who is demonstrating particularly stable and high performance.
While Japan's men's national team has a "Miyaura-sama," the women's team has a "Yukko-sama."
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