Hiroshima secure the last spot in the playoffs

The race for the last spot in the 2024-2025 men’s Daido Life SV.League playoffs was settled this weekend and the Hiroshima Thunders will be the sixth team to appear in the postseason in the Japanese League.

Hiroshima needed to win both their matches in the 22^nd leg of the regular season and that rivals Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers dropped theirs and that was exactly what happened, bringing their battle on an end – Hiroshima now have 18 and 26 losses and can no longer be caught by Sakai, who have 15 victories and 27 defeats and two matches yet to play.

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The Thunders earned their spot in the playoffs on the road as they faced eighth-placed Toray Arrows Shizuoka twice over the weekend. They gave a massive step toward qualification on Saturday, when they came back from two sets down and completed a reverse sweep to win 3-2 (26-28, 11-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-13). Outside hitter Yudai Arai carried Hiroshima with 36 points (35 kills, one ace), two more than Toray’s Brazilian opposite Alan Souza, who registered 31 kills, two blocks and one ace.

The teams met again on Sunday and this time Hiroshima were dominant, winning 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-20) to clinch their spot in the playoffs. This time, Cuban outside hitter Oreol Camejo was their leading scorer with 20 points (13 kills, five blocks, two aces), while Alan tallied 16 (15 kills, one block) for Toray.

“I thought our players were very focuses on this key match and were able to show their best game,” said Hiroshima’s Argentinean head coach Javier Weber. “I’m proud of the players, who have been training hard since the summer and continued to fight until the end of the regular season.”

Sakai, who needed to win at least one of their two road matches against fifth-placed Tokyo Great Bears to keep their playoff hopes alive, couldn’t do it, falling 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-23) on Saturday and 3-1 (25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 25-16) on Sunday and will not appear in the postseason.

Race for the top spot still open

The duel between crosstown rivals Osaka Blueton and Suntory Sunbirds Osaka for first place continues open and will only be decided next week, when the Japanese League regular season will be completed.

Still sitting at the top of the standings with 35 wins and seven losses, Bluteon needed just one home win over Suntory, who are second with 34 wins and eight losses, when the teams met this weekend to confirm their regular season victory, but they couldn’t do it.

Despite playing on the road, Suntory prevailed twice, extending their winning streak in the SV.League to 14 matches – they won 3-2 (27-25, 23-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23) on Saturday and triumphed 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-19) the next day.

Japanese national team star outside hitter Ran Takahashi scored 34 points across both matches for Suntory while his international teammate Yuji Nishida delivered 28 points for Bluteon on Saturday before being limited to just three on Sunday.

Despite the home losses, Bluteon still have control of their situation and will make it to the playoffs in first place if they beat the Toray Arrows at home twice next weekend. Suntory need to defeat the VC Nagano Tridents twice on the road next week and hope that their crosstown rivals drop at least one of their two matches to keep their chances of being the best team in the regular season.

Two other duels were held this weekend, with third-placed Wolfdogs Nagoya overcoming bottom-placed Voreas Hokkaido at home – they won 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-23) on Saturday and 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 30-28) on Sunday – and fourth-placed JTEKT Stings Aichi downing ninth-placed Nagano twice on the road – they won 3-1 (24-26, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23) on Saturday and 3-2 (19-25, 27-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-11) on Sunday.

Only six of the ten Japanese League teams will be in action in the last week of the regular season, with three duels taking place – Bluteon vs. Toray, Nagano vs. Suntory and Voreas vs. Sakai.

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