Miyaura drives Japan to strong finish of week one

With star opposite Kento Miyaura leading the team, Japan shut out the Netherlands in their fourth match in the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2025 to finish the first competition week in Xi’an, China on a 3-1 win-loss record and 9 points. Meanwhile, the European side conceded its third loss and stands on 1-3 and 3.

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Miyaura emerged as the top scorer in Japan’s 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-18) sweep of Sunday’s opening match in Xi’an. Swinging at a 55% success rate, he put away 12 spike kills. After 15-15 in set three, Japan produced a five-point run, with Miyaura behind the serving line, which practically pre-decided the match. He started off with two aces in a row, which eventually shaped up his personal tally to a match-high total of 14 points. It was Japan’s second opposite, 21-year-old Keihan Takahashi, who spiked for the winning point at the end of the third set.

“I am very satisfied with winning today’s game. We have 3-1 out of four games in China, so I am very happy,” Kento Miyaura told VBTV after the match. “There are younger guys in our team as in other teams and we are growing. It is a nice experience for us, so we want to continue like this.”

The Netherlands managed to outscore Japan in blocking, with a total of nine stuffs against six. Their leading scorer, however, excelled in the offense. Outside Bennie Tuinstra delivered 13 points, all in attack at a success rate of 54%.

“It’s hard. We are with a new squad. For some guys it’s a new experience to play so many games in a row. So it’s tough, but I think we did a lot of things well. Now we have a week to recover and work even more to be better in the next week. We showed the rest of the world what we are able to do, so let’s go on and show the world some more good volleyball,” said Tuinstra.

Sunday’s last competition day in Xi’an continues with two more matches. China and Turkiye will meet at 15:00 local time (07:00 UTC), while Poland and Serbia will lock horns at 19:00 (11:00) to close the action in Pool 3.

The VNL day will then continue with the last Pool 2 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Pool 1 games in Quebec City, Canada.

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

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