🇯🇵 JAPAN vs GERMANY 🇩🇪 | Highlights | Women's VNL 2024

🇯🇵 JAPAN vs GERMANY 🇩🇪 | Highlights | Women's VNL 2024. Fine-tuned Japan shut out Germany with Koga and Ishikawa leading the way. The Asian team still undefeated in three matches.

Japan registered their third consecutive victory in Volleyball Nations League 2024. On Friday afternoon in Antalya, Sarina Koga and Mayu Ishikawa led the team to a straight-set win over Germany to widen the distance between the two teams in the heated race for Olympic tickets through the FIVB World Ranking.

The 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-22) outcome of the match took 5.47 ranking points away from Germany and handed them to Japan. Both teams kept their pre-match positions in the chart – Japan above the cut-off line in number eight and Germany below in number 12. Japan are also on top of the current VNL standings on a 3-0 win-loss record and eight points, leaving the Germans in 11th place on 1-2 and 3.

The better production in offence and the fewer unforced errors in the match made the difference in favour of the Asian team. Outside hitter and captain Sarina Koga produced a match-high 20 points, including two aces and two kill blocks. Her cross-court teammate Mayu Ishikawa contributed another 18 points, while opposite Kotona Hayashi finished with 12. Middle blocker Camilla Weitzel, with 13 points, and opposite Kimberly Drewniok, with 12, were Germany’s most prolific players of the match.

Japan’s error-free performance during the first set gave them the edge, after giving away only one point to the opponents with an unforced mistake... That and mainly Ishikawa, who was on fire in attack to contribute eight points towards a 25-21 close. In a one-sided second set, Japan once again gave up only a single point on an own error, but also clearly dominated in all the other scoring elements. Sarina Koga led the way with two aces and a kill block towards a six-point set tally, but in the end it was an attack on two by setter Koyomi Iwasaki that closed it off at 25-15. Japan opened an early lead in set three and extended it to as many as six points. The Germans kept fighting to get back to within one, but never quite managed to catch up completely. Koga and Ishikawa fired another 15 points combined, but it was Hayashi, who spiked Japan’s last two in the match to put an end to it at 25-22.

“Japan played a really great block-defence. It was really difficult to score. We tried our best, but in the end they had every ball. We kept fighting through the end, but Japan did a better job than us,” commented Germany’s middle Anastasia Cekulaev after the match. “Japan are probably playing the quickest volleyball in the world, but we had a lot of good touches and sometimes we did a really good job. Nothing is over until it’s over, so we keep our heads up and keep going.”

“We haven’t qualified yet, so we have to play our best game every single time,” said Japan’s Airi Miyabe. “I think winning in three sets was really important.”

Like, Share, Subscribe For More Volleyball content
* 🔔 Don't Forget to Hit the Bell Icon 🔔 *

All Credits by FIVB:

Volleyball TV: https://go.volleyball.world/TV?ytv=d

- Watch ALL the Volleyball Action https://go.volleyball.world/TV?ytv=d

- Subscribe NOW https://go.volleyball.world/Subscribe...

- News, Schedules, Results & more: https://go.volleyball.world/VNL?ytv=d

FOLLOW VOLLEYBALL WORLD ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: https://go.volleyball.world/Instagram...

Facebook: https://go.volleyball.world/Facebook?...

Twitter: https://go.volleyball.world/Twitter?y...

More info: https://go.volleyball.world/home?ytv=d