In the Women's Volleyball Nations League 2025 Preliminary Round (Canada), the Japanese national team faced the Netherlands on Wednesday, June 4th (local time) and won 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-16).
Starting Lineup
Japan
S Seki (2), OH Ishikawa (15), MB Miyabe (6), OP Wada (12), OH Sato (18), MB Shimamura (4), L Kojima
Substitutes: OH Fukazawa, S Nakagawa, OP Akimoto (1)
Netherlands
OH Voss (9), MB Stout (3), OP Danbrink (10), OH Kuipers (1), MB Beijens (6), S van Aalen, L Race Ink
Substitutes: L Jasper, MB Herritsen, S Rickrema, OP van de Vosse (3)
Battle Review
Japan's serves worked well from the beginning against the Netherlands, whose average height was more than 10 cm higher. Japan dominated the Netherlands, scoring a total of nine service aces in three sets (including four aces by OH Sato).
On the other hand, against the Dutch serves, the team defended firmly, led by L. Kojima, and maintained a serve receive success rate of 701 TP 3T.
From there, OH Ishikawa, OH Sato, and OP Wada played a variety of attacks using the width of the court and back attacks. They especially made the Netherlands suffer with blockouts that took advantage of the opponent's high blocks.
Japan as a team had a high attack success rate of 521 TP3T, and outperformed the Netherlands in terms of offense throughout the game. However, they would like to improve their mid-range success rate.
The Netherlands concentrated the ball on OP Danbrink and OH Vos, but they could not respond to Japan's serves and defense. The Netherlands also did not score any blocks and could not take full advantage of their height advantage.
There is no doubt that Japan's aggressive serves were the main reason for their victory. An aggressive serve is the key.
Match stats:https://vnlw.volleystation.com/en/matches/2227486/
personal MVP
OH Yoshino Sato
18 points (14 attack, 4 serve), attack efficiency rate 381 TP 3T
In her first start as a senior representative, she showed a dignified performance with points for both teams and four service aces. Her back attacks were also very sharp, and her serve reception was also stable. The only thing she could have done better was to make five attack mistakes. The media has called her "Koga's successor," but I personally think she has already surpassed him when it comes to serving.
Qualifying Round Rankings
As of 2:00 AM on June 5th (Thursday)
| Ranking | Country | point | Number of matches | Number of wins | Set rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 1 | 1 | MAX |
| 2 | China | 3 | 1 | 1 | MAX |
| 3 | Poland | 3 | 1 | 1 | MAX |
| 4 | Türkiye | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3.0000 |
| 5 | France | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.3333 |
| 6 | Thailand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 |
| 7 | Belgium | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 |
| 9 | Brazil | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Czech Republic | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | dominican republic | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Germany | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | Serbia | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
| 9 | America | 0 | 0 | 0 | MAX |
Next race information
June 7th (Saturday) 8:30am Japan time vs Serbia
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Related links
Photo: FIVB
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