Miyaura puts Japan back on winning track

After Thursday’s loss to Poland, Japan got back on the winning track on Friday. Spearheaded by a fantastic Kento Miyaura, they swept their men’s Volleyball Nations League game with Serbia in Xi’an, China to improve to a 2-1 win-loss record. Conceding its second defeat in a row, the European team dropped to 1-2.

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High-flying opposite Kento Miyaura inspired his team on the way to a 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 26-24) victory with a match-high 19 points, at least 10 more than any of his teammates. He fired two aces and raised two kill blocks towards Ryujin Nippon’s success, while swinging at an impressive 63% success rate.

Japan were well in control for the most part of the first two sets. In the third, Serbia raised the level of resistance. They even opened a 20-18 lead and later denied a double Japanese match point at 24-22, but in the overtime, the Asian team stayed focused and middle blocker Larry Ik Evbade-Dan converted their third match point with a monster block for 26-24.

“Yesterday we lost to Poland, wasting many chances to win sets, but today we stayed focused, especially at the end of the match, and we did well,” Kento Miyaura told VBTV after the match. “Many of our top players are absent, but the new players are also very good.”

Two Serbian players reached the double digits in the match. 22-year-old outside hitter Veljko Masulovic spiked 10 points at a 63% success rate in attack, while middle blocker Aleksandar Nedeljkovic put away five points from six attempts in attack (83%) and led his team’s blocking effort with a match-high five stuffs.

“The positive thing was that we saw our new players on the court, playing in the VNL for the first time, and I am so proud of them. We lost to an amazing team, but it was close and tough. One break more for Japan in the end and the match was over…,” Serbian setter Nikola Jovovic commented.

While both Japan and Serbia have a rest day on Saturday and will appear in action again on Sunday, Friday’s program in Xi’an continues at 20:30 local time (12:30 UTC) with a game between the Netherlands and Turkiye.

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