Japan show no mercy for bottom-stuck Korea

A full house in Chiba witnessed home favorites Japan show no mercy for Korea and hammer out an emphatic shutout of their neighbors to keep them at the relegation-doomed bottom of the current women’s Volleyball Nations League standings. Japan improved to an 8-2 win-loss record and 24 points to take third place in the table. Korea trail bottom in 18^th place on 1-9 and 4.

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The first set of the match was quite one-sided. In the second, Korea managed to battle their way back from a five-point deficit to push it to overtime, but it went Japan’s way on their fifth set point. However, Korea gained some confidence and fought on to open a 20-16 lead in set three, but at that moment Japan reacted with seven points in a row on 21-year-old substitution Ayane Kitamodo’s serve to turn the set around and, shortly after, a successful first-tempo attack by Nichika Yamada shaped up the final 3-0 (25-21, 27-25, 25-22) victory.

Opposite Yukiko Wada fueled Japan with a match-high 18 points, including two aces. She registered a 57% success rate in attack. Outside hitters Yoshino Sato and 18-year-old Miku Akimoto added 17 and 11 points, respectively. Outside and captain Sohwi Kang was Korea’s most prolific scorer with 14 points, all in swings. Her cross-court teammate Seoyoung Yuk finished with 10.

“We tried to maintain a good rhythm and a good atmosphere on the court, we were focused on the game and in the end we could get another win today that was really helpful for us,” Wada told VBTV. “Everybody was focused on what we need to do and also on how we need to do it during the game on the court.”

Thursday’s VNL action is about to continue in Apeldoorn with Olympic and VNL champions Italy taking on world champions Serbia at 17:00 local time (15:00 UTC).

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

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