Osaka, Japan, September 28, 2019 – Hosts Japan delighted a packed house of supporters with a straight-set win over Argentina 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-12) at the Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka.
Japan coach Kumi Nakada: "Following yesterday's win, today's match was also important for our team. I rested some players who needed it, and I tried some things that I wanted to try. I wanted to keep their motivation up, and I think we could fight well. That was a good point, and we will do our best in the final match against holland tomorrow."
On Sarina Koga's play and her challenges recently: "I think she is of two minds - that's how I've been feeling about her. Today at lunch I had a discussion with her, and I asked her what she thinks the problem or difficulties are to see if our views match. It seems she was fixed on skill aspects, and I felt different. So we looked at the video together and tried to find a correction. I also felt even if her pace doesn't pick up as we hoped, I wanted to use her in today's match a lot. And it looks like it worked to some extent."
On using Yurie Nabeya, and then following with Mayu Ishikawa: "Nabeya's scoring ratio began to decline, and I had planned to introduce Ishikawa as soon as she cooled off. Ishikawa hasn't played much in this Osaka venue, so it was partly because of this that I introduced her at the end."
On how they will approach the final match tomorrow: "It's difficult to answer. I don't know. We need to make tomorrow's match something that will push us forward.
Japan captain Nana Iwasaka: "Today's match up to the middle of the first set, (Argentina's) momentum prevailed and their service disrupted us -but after that we could win the second and third sets, I think thanks to the momentum from yesterday's win. So we don't want to waste these two wins, and we hope our players and coaches can work together well going into tomorrow."
Japan player Sarina Koga: "I think it's good we could win today. Tomorrow will be final match of the season, we'd like to end solidly with a win."
On her discussion with her coach earlier today: "Yes, after failing to score my momentum was a bit slow as my coach pointed out, so we wanted to be better, and so I was very mindful of that in today's match."
On taking her sets away from the net today: "Well, when a set is a little away from the net I can hit hit harder. So yes, I spoke to the setter, and asked for it that way."
Japan player Miwako Osanai: "Today in the first set we couldn't pass well. Halfway through the match we decided to put the first pass higher, so we could achieve a better flow. I hope we can bring this rhythm into tomorrow's match."
On starting today: "Last time I started, I attacked well, but on defence, my blocking wasn't so good that time. But today I had difficulties in the beginning. But from halfway on we could execute better, and I could spike with more confidence thanks to good setting."
Argentina coach Hernan Ferraro: "Today we got off to a good start but after losing the second set we began to lose momentum. After that we made a lot more errors and that allowed Japan to gain rhythm. And that's why we ended up with this disappointing result."
Argentina captain Julieta Constanza Lazcano: "Today Japan just played better than us. We should have had stronger attacking. Their team isn't all that tall, we should have focused more on attacking, but we couldn't."
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