Battles for two remaining semifinal spots in Japan coming up!

With regular season winners Osaka Bluteon and runners-up Suntory Sunbirds Osaka having already reserved two of the spots in the men’s Daido Life SV.League semifinals in Japan, the other two vacancies are up for grabs. They will be at stake from Friday to Sunday of this week, when the two best-of-three quarterfinal playoffs take place with the teams that finished third to sixth in the final regular season standings in action. The teams that were ranked higher in the regular season will have the home-court advantage in all quarterfinal and semifinal matches.

• Watch Japan's SV.League on VBTV.

JTEKT Stings Aichi v Tokyo Great Bears

JTEKT Stings Aichi and Tokyo Great Bears will lock horns in a promising quarterfinal match-up between the fourth and the fifth in the table. They will open this stage of the season on Friday at 18:05 local time (09:05 UTC) with the first game of their series, set to be held at the Okazaki Central Park Martial Arts Arena. The second match is on Saturday at the same time. Should a third game be needed to break a possible tie, it will be played on Sunday, also at 18:05 (09:05).

With a squad packed with world-class players like Masahiro Sekita, Kento Miyaura, Kentaro Takahashi, USA’s Torey DeFalco or Brazil’s Ricardo Lucarelli, Aichi produced a record of a 26-18 win-loss ratio and 71 points and finished in fourth place, way behind the top three in the standings. Featuring a more modest line-up, highlighted by Portugal’s Alexandre Ferreira and Poland’s Maciej Muzaj, playoff rookies Tokyo took fifth place on 23-21 and 73. The two teams met six times during the regular season and as many as four of these encounters were resolved after five-set duels. In the most recent double header in late March, hosts Aichi took the full six points to shape up a 5-1 advantage in this season’s head-to-head record so far.

Wolfdogs Nagoya v Hiroshima Thunders

Wolfdogs Nagoya stopped short of qualifying directly for the semifinals after finishing third in the regular season on 35-9 and 104, just a win behind runners-up Suntory Sunbirds. Powered by their Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz, who was the top scorer, the most efficient spiker and the most efficient server of the regular season, and high-caliber players like captain Kenta Takanashi or Slovenia’s Tine Urnaut, Nagoya assume the role of heavy favorites in their quarterfinal race against Hiroshima Thunders, who finished sixth on a negative balance of 18-26 and 55.

Nagoya won all six matches between the two teams during the regular season, but still, Hiroshima might be up to the task of dropping a huge upset with athletes like Brazil’s Felipe Roque or Cuba’s Oreol Camejo in the line-up. The series will take place at Wolfdogs’ home venue, the Entrio. Friday’s game will serve off at 19:05 (10:05), while the matches on Saturday and, if necessary, on Sunday will start at 15:35 (06:35).

Men’s SV.League 2024-2025 quarterfinals:
Apr 18, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): JTEKT Stings Aichi v Tokyo Great Bears
Apr 18, 19:05 local (10:05 UTC): Wolfdogs Nagoya v Hiroshima Thunders
Apr 19, 15:35 local (06:35 UTC): Wolfdogs Nagoya v Hiroshima Thunders
Apr 19, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): JTEKT Stings Aichi v Tokyo Great Bears
Apr 20, 15:35 local (06:35 UTC): Wolfdogs Nagoya v Hiroshima Thunders (if necessary)
Apr 20, 18:05 local (09:05 UTC): JTEKT Stings Aichi v Tokyo Great Bears (if necessary)

Quick links:
Japanese SV.League - men
VBTV
Volleyball World Facebook
Volleyball World X
Volleyball World Instagram
Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter