Tokyo and Osaka split wins in the SV.League

Tokyo Great Bears and Osaka Bluteon lived up to the expectations, and delivered a pair of exciting duels in the men’s Daido Life SV.League, which had its 17th leg of the regular season this weekend.

At the end, each side got to celebrate a win, keeping their spots in the current standings, both sitting inside the qualification zone for the playoffs, with Osaka appearing in second place and Tokyo in fifth.

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The road team in this week's matchup, Osaka controlled the first match and counted on 23 points (21 kills, one block, one ace) from outside hitter Masato Kai and another 21 (18 kills, two blocks, one ace) from team captain and opposite Yuji Nishida to win 3-1 (28-26, 22-25, 25-23, 25-18).

On Sunday, Tokyo were able to make their homecourt advantage count and benefited from a 19-point (16 kills, two blocks, one ace) performance from Argentine outside hitter Luciano Vicentin to return the 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-19, 28-26) victory. Polish star opposite Bartosz Kurek was their second-best scorer with 17 points (14 kills, two blocks, one ace).

Also splitting wins this weekend were sixth-placed Hiroshima Thunders and fourth-placed JTEKT Stings Aichi. Hiroshima delivered a strong home performance to win 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 30-28) on Saturday, but couldn't keep the same level on Sunday and was beaten 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-17).

The duels between seventh-placed Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers and eighth-placed Toray Arrows Shizuoka had the same outcome, with Sakai prevailing 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-21) on Saturday and Toray winning 3-1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-23) on Sunday.

Suntory dominate Voreas

Defending champions and league leaders Suntory Sunbirds Osaka continued to accumulate victories this weekend, overcoming ninth-placed Voreas Hokkaido twice. They dropped a set on Saturday, but counted on 21 points (19 kills, two blocks) from star outside hitter Ran Takahashi to prevail 3-1 (25-23, 25-15, 26-28, 25-20).

Things were smoother for the Sunbirds on Sunday, when 18 points (14 kills, three aces, one block) from Ran propelled them to secure a 3-0 (25-13, 27-25, 26-24) victory.

Third-placed Wolfdogs Nagoya had a little more trouble getting a pair of wins against tenth-placed Nagano Tridents. They had Saturday's encounter under control, triumphing 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-19), but were pushed to the tie-breaker on Sunday before performing a reverse sweep and coming out on top 3-2 (23-25, 16-25, 25-21, 25-20, 21-19).

The 18th of the SV.League will have an unusually early start, with Sakai and Suntory playing on Thursday and Friday. The four remaining double headers will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

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