{"id":352574,"date":"2026-06-18T02:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=352574"},"modified":"2026-06-18T02:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:43:28","slug":"japan-stays-unbeaten-at-5-0-fends-off-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/japan-stays-unbeaten-at-5-0-fends-off-serbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan stays unbeaten at 5-0, fends off Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"FOR_target_content\">\n<div id=\"attachment_682328\" style=\"width: 2570px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-682328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Japan in motion vs Serbia through the VNL Women\u2019s Week 2 at Philsports Arena.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>MANILA, Philippines \u2014 Japan survived a gritty Serbia side to eke out a come-from-behind<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>20-25, 26-24, 18-25, 32-20, 15-7 win and preserve a 5-0 record within the Volleyball Nations League women\u2019s week 2 on Wednesday at Philsports Arena in Pasig City.<\/p>\n<p>Mayu Ishikawa and Yukiko Wada saved the Japanese from the brink of defeat, delivering the ending blows to maintain the solo lead of the 18-nation, nine-leg pool phase league.<\/p>\n<div id=\"billboard_article\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i id=\"art_cont\" style=\"color:#85A7BF;\">Article continues after this commercial<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>READ: PH all set for VNL Women\u2019s Week 2 hosting\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ishikawa delivered 24 points and the last two within the fifth set to seal the comeback win, while Wada chipped in 20 points \u2014 all from attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Japan squandered a 24-22 advantage within the fourth after Serbia took five match points. Haruyo Shimamura put Japan ahead with a clutch block, 31-30, followed by Yoshino Sato\u2019s set-clinching hit to force a decider.<\/p>\n<p>Sato\u2019s ace kept Serbia at bay within the fifth with a 13-5 spread, as she finished with 12 points off seven kills, 4 aces, and a block.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Shimamura had 11 points.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ztoop\">\n<i id=\"art_cont\" style=\"color:#85A7BF;\">Article continues after this commercial<\/i>\t\t  <\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cToday, it was an excellent comeback.Serbia played really great. Great match. And we were struggling through the match, but after some time, we get the rhythm. So it was an incredible comeback. It\u2019s the fifth victory in five matches, so it\u2019s so good. We want to proceed on this rhythm,\u201d said Japan coach Fehrat Akbas, who was thrilled by the cheers of the Filipino crowd.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAll crowd, I see, I hear, Nippon, Nippon, so that they supported us really good. We were feeling like we&#8217;re in Japan, so thanks to all Philippine fans. I hope they arrive and support us for the following matches too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aleksandra Uzelac scored 21 for Serbia. Nina Cajic chipped in 18 points just for them to drop to a 1-4 record.<\/p>\n<div id=\"billboard_article\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i id=\"art_cont\" style=\"color:#85A7BF;\">Article continues after this commercial<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Hena Kurtagic had five of Serbia\u2019s 15 block points, while Japan had only a complete of 4.<\/p>\n<p>Japan returns to motion on Friday against Czechia, while Serbia has a brief turnaround before facing defending champion Italy on Thursday at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan in motion vs Serbia through the VNL Women\u2019s Week 2 at Philsports Arena. MANILA, Philippines \u2014 Japan survived a gritty Serbia side to eke out a come-from-behind\u00a0 20-25, 26-24, 18-25, 32-20, 15-7 win and preserve a 5-0 record within the Volleyball Nations League women\u2019s week 2 on Wednesday at Philsports Arena in Pasig City. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[2376,2030,22742,2340,7493],"class_list":["post-352574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fends","tag-japan","tag-serbia","tag-stays","tag-unbeaten"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352577,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352574\/revisions\/352577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}