In front of nearly four thousand spectators in each of the two games, Suntory Sunbirds mastered two shutouts of Nagano Tridents – 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-19) on Saturday and 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-15) on Sunday – with two Russians claiming the top scorer honors. Outside Egor Kliuka put away 16 points, including three blocks and an ace, in the first match, while opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy impressed with 23 points, including four blocks and three aces, in the second. Nagano stayed in seventh place, now on 3-9 and 12.
The double header played earlier in the week, on Thursday and Friday, produced two away victories for JTEKT Stings Aichi over Nippon Steel Sakai Blazers. The home team won the first set of the first match, but Aichi took over to celebrate a 3-1 (17-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-20) win. Two American stars – Sakai’s Matthew Anderson (two blocks, one ace) and Aichi’s Torey DeFalco (one ace) – engaged in a scoring race, which ended in a draw – 23 points each. In the second match, JTEKT Stings took out Blazers in straight sets, 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-23), with a match-high 19 points from DeFalco, including two aces. Aichi improved to 8-4 and 24 in fourth place, while Sakai dropped to the bottom of the standings, 10th place, on 2-10 and 6.
