Aichi and Nagoya stun Bluteon and Suntory in Osaka

Kento Miyaura was on fire as JTEKT Stings Aichi shocked hosts and favorites Osaka Bluteon in the opening match of their best-of-three semifinal playoff in the men’s Daido Life SV.League in Japan on Friday. Wolfdogs Nagoya followed suit and mounted a stunning reverse sweep against their hosts and defending champions Suntory Sunbirds Osaka in the second match of the day at the Asue Arena Osaka, with a fantastic 36-point contribution from Nimir Abdel Aziz.

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Kento Miyaura was the best scorer in JTEKT Stings Aichi’s stunning 3-1 (33-31, 18-25, 25-20, 25-16) victory over regular season winners and hosts of this semifinal playoff Osaka Bluteon, as the series opened with the first game at the Asue Arena Osaka on Friday. The Japanese international opposite spiked at an impressive 67% success rate and added two aces towards a match-high 25 points. Brazilian outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli added another 19, including two aces and two kill blocks, while his American cross-court teammate Torey DeFalco finished with 18. Their Cuban counterpart Miguel Lopez led Osaka’s scorers with 22 points, while opposite Yuji Nishida put away 18. The second game in the series is on Saturday at 13:05 local time (04:05 UTC).

Suntory Sunbirds Osaka and Wolfdogs Nagoya took to the court at the Asue Arena Osaka for the day’s second match. The champions stormed the match dominating the first two sets, but then the visitors from Nagoya produced a thrilling comeback to celebrate a 3-2 (22-25, 14-25, 27-25, 25-23, 17-15) victory. With a 60% success rate in attack, Wolfdogs’ Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel Aziz hammered out a match-high 36 points, including three aces. Outside hitters Taito Mizumachi and Slovenia’s Tine Urnaut chipped in with 17 and 11 points, respectively. Three players reached the double digits on Suntory Sunbirds’ side as well – Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy with 18 points and outsides Ran Takahashi with 25 and Alain De Armas with 19. The next game in this playoff will serve off on Saturday at 18:05 (09:05).

Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 semifinals:
Apr 26, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi
Apr 26, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya
Apr 27, 13:05 local (04:05 UTC): Osaka Bluteon v JTEKT Stings Aichi (if necessary)
Apr 27, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka v Wolfdogs Nagoya (if necessary)

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