SUNTORY SUNBIRDS OSAKA Beat JTEKT STINGS AICHI to Clinch First 2024-25 DAIDO LIFE SV.LEAGUE MEN CHAMPIONSHIP
SUNTORY SUNBIRDS OSAKA overcame the resilience of JTEKT STINGS AICHI on Monday to clinch the inaugural SV.LEAGUE MEN CHAMPIONSHIP at LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY. SUNTORY took the Finals 2-0 after a tough 3-0 (29-27, 25-16, 25-22) win on Monday. Ran Takahashi was named Championship MVP.
After Saturday’s epic first game, which SUNTORY won in five long sets after a dramatic three and a half hours, it was up to the two coaches to motivate their teams for the follow up. And they picked up where they left off on Saturday, with neither team able to move more than two points ahead of the other throughout the entire first set. However, five of the first nine points were made on service errors as the two teams struggled to find their best form. STINGS AICHI defended well and Takahashi was making his presence felt, but as the set progressed, both teams turned up the heat and there was little to choose between them. Torey DeFalco showed both power and intelligence for STINGS AICHI while Dmitriy Muserskiy was a huge and powerful presence for SUNTORY. STINGS AICHI had three setpoints but it was SUNTORY who clinched it on their second as Takahashi forced a ball through the STINGS AICHI defense to end the set 29-27.
As the second set started, STINGS AICHI lost their way, dropping the first five points and falling 8-1 behind. Daigo Iwamoto came into good effect, making some powerful spikes down the middle as STINGS AICHI tried to steady the ship, but they were 11 points behind at 20-9 and there was no way back. Consecutive service errors by Naoya Fujiwara and Rao Shuhan ended the set.
To their credit, STINGS AICHI regrouped, with DeFalco and Ricardo Lucarelli Souza leading the way, despite some defiance from SUNTORY’s Takahashi and Muserskiy. STINGS AICHI took the lead at 7-6 and were still a point ahead at 19-18. Some superb defensive work by STINGS AICHI and a good hit down the middle from Go Murayama brought the teams level at 21, but a sharp spike by Taishi Onodera was followed by a clever service ace from Muserskiy that put SUNTORY 23-21 ahead and two points away from the title. Muserskiy put his next serve into the net, but a spike by Takahashi, some brilliant defense by SUNTORY and a crunching finish from Muserskiy ended STINGS AICHI’s dreams and made SUNTORY the first SV.LEAGUE champions.
“I’m truly happy to have been able to win and stand here as champions in front of all of you,” Takahashi said. “From the very first match, STINGS AICHI played such a great game, and today we gave it our all to make sure we could lift up the atmosphere together with STINGS AICHI and everyone in this arena. We really had so much fun playing and even though it was our home game, it also felt like an away game in some ways. But we were able to play with real heart and passion.”
SUNTORY SUNBIRDS OSAKA
Head Coach Oliver Lecat (FRA): I’m really happy, very proud, but emotionally really tired. A lot of emotion. It's a good performance, really, really amazing performance. So, for me, when you want to reach the top, you have to step up your average of performance. I'm just kantoku (head coach), as you say in Japan. So I do my job, and I try to do good to help them to learn a lot about your country, about your culture, about how I have to manage. It's totally different than in Europe and in my country. But it's a really, really nice challenge, a really exciting challenge, so I'm really happy about that. And to work for a company who strive to be on the top of the world, it's a big pleasure. A big honor. I think the main topic is how you work every day. To keep the intensity and to try to create the condition that you can. Your emotion is moving every day, every minute, every second. So I think the key factor is, for me, 85 percent the mental approach of the team, the capacity to be resilient and to manage the good way, our emotions, our bad thoughts. It's really important. I consider that the team is more important than the individual players. I'm proud about what we did together.
(Re. MVP Takahashi) I don't like to talk about only one, because this sport is really a collective sport. We know the quality of man, everyone in the world knows the famous player he is, and he's still young. He helped us a lot this season. We have a lot of famous players individually, but after that, we have to try to make them fit together, to believe in the same way. I'm really proud about the job we did together. The team did a great job from the first day of practice till today, so I don't want to just extract one guy.
MVP Ran Takahashi (JPN): I feel relieved to have achieved our goal of winning the championship. This victory belongs to everyone at SUNTORY, and looking back on the season, I believe we were able to grow as a team and peak at the right moment for the finals – it was the culmination of everything we’ve worked for. There were tough moments, especially in the first set, but we were able to keep believing and fight through together. Our focus on each and every point was what ultimately led us to victory.
We were only able to play the way we did today thanks to the support of so many people. I truly believe this was our best volleyball of the season. This was my first season playing in the Japanese league, and I had the chance to compete in front of many fans throughout the year. I’ve heard that SUNTORY drew over 100,000 spectators this season, and people around me say the atmosphere was even more exciting than last year. That kind of energy is a great sign for both volleyball and the SV.LEAGUE. Even today, playing in a packed venue with both teams’ fans united in passion, I could feel how much the sport and the SV.LEAGUE have grown.
From the very start of the season, becoming the first-ever SV.LEAGUE champions was both a personal responsibility and a shared team goal. Achieving that not only means a lot to us now, but I believe it will positively impact each player’s career going forward. Being able to move forward with confidence is incredibly important. We have the Asian Club Championship ahead, but unless we’re number one in Japan, it’s difficult to aim for the title of the world’s best club team. So I believe this was an important milestone toward that ultimate goal.
Alain De Armas (JPN): I feel amazing. It's been a long journey. I haven't finished yet, but these moments when you play the whole year and then all the work that you put on is worth it. It's an amazing feeling. Saturday's game was tough. I don't know how many times we were only one point from losing. We were winning last year, the last year of the V.LEAGUE. Now that we're the first in the SV.LEAGUE, it's a special moment. I think it was the energy of the team. What's the difference? We were this close to losing on Saturday. We needed to finish this fast and just enjoy it.
Dmitriy Muserskiy (RUS): (Re. blocking) I spent many, many years in Russia. And in Russia, there is a good school of blocking and spiking. I don't know what is my secret. I just do what I know, what I learn.
(Re. Saturday's game) I had a massage, I had a day off, I had fitness, nothing special. You cannot be tired in the final, right? Because it's the final, you have a lot of emotions, you have a lot of motivation, you have a fire inside. It moves you to do something. The team was not tired.
(How did we become stronger?) First, we got new players, we worked hard during the regular championship and these new players are very good players and first they make our team more stronger but in my opinion, the main point is mental, the winner mentality and atmosphere in the team and connection between setter and the spikers, between receivers. That's more important than personal skills.
Aleksander Sliwka (POL): I feel amazing. We won the championship. That was our goal before the season. There were a lot of tough moments during the season, but we stayed together and believed in ourselves. So, we are really happy that we accomplished our goal. The difference between teams is very thin, so one or two balls can decide who will be the champion. Today we won 3-0, but it doesn't tell the story how the first and third sets were close. Still, we are really happy that we proved that we are the better team, but I think it was really close and two balls could decide and STINGS AICHI could be the champion today as well.
It was really tough for them to, let's say after the first set, again they had two set balls, they were spiking two set balls, so I think it was really difficult for them to stand up after losing the first set and that took them a long time to come back mentally and we used this time to make a point difference, so that's why the second set was easier for us, but in the third set they came back after this 15 minutes break. They came back strong and that was really close again, so they were really tough opponents in the series.
(Re. Saturday’s game) It gave us the confidence that no matter what, we can win, we can come back from deficits, we can win every set, even if we are losing. I think that thought that we have today, because of that, helped us prevail today in this tough moment, in this first set especially.
JTEKT STINGS AICHI
Head Coach Michal Gogol (POL): Congratulations to SUNTORY, they were the better team in the crucial moments today. But I want to give a big credit to my team, and I am really proud from the way we came back, because losing the first match, I think you were all witnessing this is what was happening in Ariake Arena, losing the first match, so much drama, so much turnarounds, so much challenges, we closed the match two times, and coming back not thinking about this. This is the quality of big teams and big players, and today again in the first set we were playing good, we were fighting, then maybe the second set we start to go down, but again we came back in the third, with the help of our fans, which in the third set helped us to come back. SUNTORY was better, for the last, I don't know, two balls. I think mentally we were ready today. I think in the first set there was no problem, we were fighting good and we were ready. We believed today and that's also what I am proud of – we believed and that's the main thing.
Torey DeFalco (USA): They're a good team. We played good until it wasn't good and then that was it. They're just a really good team.
Ricardo Lucarelli Souza (BRA): We had a lot of ups and downs where we had a lot of teammates missing for the entire season and it was really bad for our season but we came back in the end and fought to the very end and then unfortunately SUNTORY is SUNTORY so nothing much you can do. We were playing against a really good team that gave us a really hard time sometimes. The second set, we began really bad and they started to play it so easy, but Saturday was an amazing game. We were playing good, winning, having a chance to win and today we also had some opportunities and against a team like this, you can't lose. This is the sport. I'm really proud and it's a bit emotional because some players are going, leaving and it was a really hard season for everybody, so I'm really proud. I didn't feel tired like this for a long time, so it was intense.
(After Saturday’s loss), I was of course sad and thinking about the chance we had, but when I got to the hotel I just forget because we had this chance today again, so I was just trying to think positive and think about what we can do to win, and yeah, it's always really hard to lose that way. I think I was more sad than angry, because having been this close to beating a team like SUNTORY and then losing is always really hard. They have experienced players, they have young players that is also really almost experienced already, like Ran. He is really confident and the setter gives the confidence to this team. In general they are a really good team; nothing to say, just congratulations. I'm really proud (of my team). Of course, I'm sad; I always want to win, but for what we had on this season, every game, one player missing, one player injured. I had problems, all the players had problems, so I think us, for the coach it was really difficult every game. I'm just proud of everybody.
