Just like in the inaugural SV.League 2024-2025 season, the season opener will feature the teams of Osaka Bluteon and Suntory Sunbirds Osaka. This time the games will be at the newly opened Glion Arena Kobe, which will serve as Bluteon’s new home. The first match of the double header will serve off at 19:10 local time (10:10 UTC) on Friday, October 24. The second will be played on Saturday at 19:05 (10:05).
Last season, the two teams met six times. Bluteon won the first two encounters, while Suntory Sunbirds won the next four. Two of the six matches were resolved after five-set battles. Bluteon topped the regular season standings, but were then eliminated by JTEKT Stings Aichi in the semifinals, while regular season runners-up Suntory Sunbirds went all the way to claiming the inaugural crown. The bronze medalists enter the new season under the guidance of a new coach, Finland’s Tuomas Sammelvuo, and conducted by a new playmaker, France’s star setter Antoine Brizard. Opposite Yuji Nishida and Cuban outside hitter Miguel Lopez will continue to be relied on to bring in the points. The champions have also strengthened themselves with a new star playmaker in Masahiro Sekita to feed the likes of outside hitter and new captain Ran Takahashi and Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy in attack, and a new Russian star - outside hitter Egor Kliuka.
