Red Rockets clinch SV. League playoff spot

Defending champions NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki became the third team guaranteed in the playoffs of the 2024-2025 women’s Daido Life SV.League this weekend, during the 18^th leg of the regular season.

With a pair of road victories over Aranmare Yamagata, the team got to 25 wins and nine losses, clinching a spot in the postseason. League leaders Osaka Marvelous (28 wins, six losses) and second-placed Denso Airybees Koriyama (25 wins, nine losses) are also guaranteed, leaving five spots still for grabs.

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On Saturday, the Red Rockets needed four sets and 23 points (17 kills, four aces, two blocks) from outside hitter Yoshino Sato to overcome the 13^th-placed Yamagata 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-14).

The next day, the defending champions triumphed 3-0 (25-21, 25-10, 26-24) and had Japanese national team opposite Yukiko Wada as their leading scorer with 22 points (17 kills, three aces, two blocks).

“This time the team managed to be focused from the start, which was an issue on Saturday,” head coach Takayuki Kaneko said. “I think our serving and our offense, which are our main strengths, worked very well today but we can still improve in many aspects and we’ll try to do it next week, when we play at home.”

The other two teams guaranteed in the playoffs had difficult weeks, combining to get one win in four matches. Leaders Osaka were at home and split matches with fourth-placed Saitama Ageo Medics, winning 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-23) on Saturday and falling 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 18-25, 25-17) on Sunday.

Denso played on the road and weren’t able to collect any wins against sixth-placed SAGA Hisamitsu Springs, losing 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 27-25, 25-21) on Saturday and also 3-1 (25-27, 25-22, 25-17, 25-22) on Sunday.

Home teams prevail

Ninth-placed PFU Blue Cats Ishikawa Kahoku had a clean week, playing at home and beating eighth-placed Astemo Rivale Ibaraki 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-18) on Saturday and 3-1 (25-22, 20-25, 25-21, 26-24) on Sunday.

Tenth-placed Queenseis Kariya also made great use of their homecourt advantage to secure a pair of wins over 12^th-placed Okayama Seagulls – they triumphed 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-18) on Saturday and 3-1 (28-26, 20-25, 25-22, 28-26) on Sunday.

The same happened in the duel between fifth-placed Victorina Himeji and 11^th-placed KUROBE Aqua Fairies Toyama. Playing in front of their home fans, Himeji produced a 3-0 (25-13, 32-30, 25-18) victory on Saturday and another 3-0 (29-27, 25-23, 25-16) triumph on Sunday.

The seventh and last matchup of the weekend had seventh-placed Toray Arrows Shiga sweeping 14^th-placed Gunma Green Wings on the road – they won 3-1 (25-19, 27-25, 25-27, 25-17) on Saturday and 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-20) on Sunday.

Next week, another full round of matches will be held in the Japanese League, with seven duels repeating on Saturday and Sunday in the country.

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