VNL 2026

Japan shift to ‘reverse sweep’ in crucial match with Poland

The Asian team books a spot in the VNL Finals

Published 01:44, 12 Jul 2026

In a spectacular do-or-die match in Osaka on Sunday, Japan delighted the sellout crowd and all the home fans with a furious comeback from two sets down to outlast Poland in the tie-breaker and qualify for the women’s Volleyball Nations League Finals in China.

Watch the Volleyball Nations League 2026 on VBTV

An official count of 7,107 spectators witnessed the turnaround that resulted in a 3-2 (20-25, 14-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-13) win for the home team over the bronze medalists of the previous three VNL editions.

Japan completely outperformed Poland in offense by 68-56 in spike kills and from the serving line by 6-2 in aces. Outside hitter Yoshino Sato authored as many as four of those serving points and she even closed the match with an off-the-net drop serve for the winner. She finished with a total of 16 points, while her cross-court teammate and captain Mayu Ishikawa chipped in with 18. With that, Ishikawa reached an important milestone, passing the 1,000-point mark in VNL.

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Opposite Yukiko Wada led the way with 27 points, sharing the top scorer honors with Polish counterpart Magdalena Stysiak.

“First of all, we wanted to enjoy today’s match. So, we wanted to make sure of that, even if it were tough on the court. Actually, we didn’t feel any pressure and just focused on what we needed to do on the court,” Wada told VBTV after the game.

Poland, on the other hand, completely outdid the opponent in net defense by 16-2 in kill blocks. They also made fewer errors than Japan, 23-29. Stysiak raised four kill blocks towards her match-high 27 points. 19-year-old middle blocker Maja Koput and her cross-court teammate Magdalena Jurczyk put up five kill blocks each. Outside Monika Lampkowska contributed 14 points, all in swings.

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“In the first two sets, we thought that we had everything under control, but then Japan started playing much better, while we made some mistakes and could not finish off our attacks,” Poland’s outside hitter Julita Piasecka commented. “I don’t want to say that we were frustrated, but we collapsed a little bit. In the end, it’s a really huge loss for us, so of course, the emotions are bad right now.”

Japan improved to an 8-4 win-loss record and 21 points and are certain to finish in the top seven of the final VNL standings, thus qualifying for the Finals, while Poland ended on 7-5 and 20, just below the cut-off.

VNL 2026 schedule and results