Denso Airybees Koriyama will host defending champions Osaka Marvelous at the Horaiya Bonds Arena, with the Sunday game also starting at 13:05 (04:05). The home team, spearheaded by Brazilian strikers Rosamaria Montibeller and Sabrina Machado, occupies seventh place in the current standings on an 8-8 win-loss ratio and 25 points, while the visitors from Osaka, starring the likes of Japanese internationals Kotona Hayashi and Ameze Miyabe, are running in fourth on 11-5 and 35. Marvelous are riding the wave of a five-match winning streak, while Airybees’ four-game streak was interrupted by a home loss to Okayama Seagulls last Sunday. Last season, the two clubs met five times. Denso won the two encounters in the regular season as well as the first game of their best-of-three semifinal series, but Osaka struck back when it mattered the most, in matches two and three, to advance to the final.
The upcoming matches between Okayama Seagulls and Saitama Ageo Medics have been selected Games of the Week. They will both start at 14:05 (05:05), on Saturday and Sunday, and will be played at the Sanyo Fureai Gymnasium. The two teams achieved shocking wins last Sunday, each putting an end to a long negative run. Okayama beat Denso on the road after six consecutive losses and improved to 2-14 and 8 in 13th place, while Ageo stunned table leaders NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki, also on the road, and climbed to ninth place on 7-7 and 20.
