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Thoughts on the 2025 Spring High Volleyball Tournament: The girls won with a big ace, the boys won with organizational strength

The men's and women's finals of the 2025 Spring High School Volleyball Tournament were held yesterday, Sunday, January 12, 2025. Kyoei Gakuen (Tokyo) won the women's tournament for the first time in 19 years, while Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo) won the men's tournament for the third consecutive time.

I watched the semi-finals on Sports Bull and the finals on terrestrial TV. Of course, I didn't watch all the matches, and I didn't record accurate data, so here I'd like to give a rough impression of this tournament based on my own bias and prejudice.

First, the girls.

The results of the finals are here
https://volleyballking.jp/article/20888/

I mainly watched the men's competition, so I honestly can't comment on the women's competition overall, but Misora Akimoto was amazing. She was so amazing that it felt like this competition was just for her.

His mother is former Japanese national team player Ai Otomo, and he is also 184cm tall, has experience playing for the senior national team, and was the number one player of his generation, attracting a lot of attention, but I felt that he was a player with skills that surpassed all the attention he received.

Of course, he could hit powerful spikes from a high impact point, but what was great was that he didn't just hit the ball down, but instead hit long attacks deep into the court. This allowed him to score a lot of points by spiking from above without being caught even when the ball was blocked.

He is also very skilled at hitting anything from the left, center, right, broad, back attack, and high ball, and he can do every play at a high level, not just attacking, but blocking, receiving, and even tossing. His jump serve is also powerful.

In the semi-finals he scored 42 points by himself, and in the finals he scored 35 points by himself despite winning in straight sets.

I think she is a talented player who could be a starter for the Japanese national team right away. In particular, the women's national team needs a new point getter after Sarina Koga retires, so this is the perfect timing.

The question is which position she will play, as she can do anything, but personally I think an opposite position diagonally opposite the setter would be good. In fact, Akimoto plays opposite for the national team for her age group.

Until the Paris Olympics, the Japanese women's national team used the defensive player Hayashi in the opposite position, but in order to compete on the world stage, they will need to be able to launch right attacks in any rotation and make full use of the 9-meter width of the net to launch their attacks.

I think Akimoto can be the missing piece for Japan. He has a high block and can even participate in serve reception in some cases. I'm looking forward to seeing him play for the senior national team.

In addition to Akimoto, this tournament saw many aces and point getters on the female side, including runner-up Yemonmya of Shimokitazawa Seitoku.

On the other hand, most of the points were scored by the ace player alone or the two players opposite him, and it was unfortunate that there were no teams where a traditional middle blocker was active, nor any teams that incorporated back attacks into their combinations.

There are more and more boys' teams like this, so I hope there will be more girls' teams like this too. Also, there are quite a few boys who are over 190cm tall, but there are fewer girls who are over 180cm tall, so I hope there will be more of them.

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