From the bench to the turning point: Ayane Kitamado shines in SAGA Hisamitsu’s season opener

The turning point came in the third set. Trailing 21–24, SAGA Hisamitsu were one point away from losing it. Points from Shion Hirayama and Kitamado helped turn the set around, before Kitamado finished it with an attack from the left side for 26–24. Coming off the bench, she helped close out the set when her team faced its toughest moment.

Kitamado finished with eight kills from 20 attempts, a 40.0% attack success rate. Those eight points tell a fuller story when we consider when they were scored.

Starting or coming off the bench cannot, by itself, define a player’s contribution. Scoring with the opposition at set point, then delivering the final kill: Kitamado’s opener showed how much a player can accomplish when her opportunity arrives.

Alongside the third-set comeback, Nishimura and Nakajima’s work in the second set deserves attention. Late in a close contest, Nishimura’s defensive saves and Nakajima’s mix of powerful and softer attacks contributed to a five-point run. SAGA Hisamitsu took the set and levelled the match.

Nakajima converted 18 of her 52 attack attempts and added two blocks for 20 points. Her attack success rate was 34.6%, but her contribution also lay in carrying a substantial attacking workload and continuing to put points on the board.

She also delivered in the closing stages. From the 20-point stage onward, she made five kills from 13 attempts, a 38.5% success rate—above her full-match figure of 34.6%. While carrying 52 attack attempts overall, she continued converting opportunities in the closing stages.

Nishimura kept the ball alive, Nakajima turned opportunities into points, and Kitamado delivered at the decisive moment in the third set. Looking back at this win means recognising the defence and attack that made the comeback possible, as well as the player who finished it.

For Aleeza Aichi, Sayaka Yokota—one of our players to watch before the opener—recorded two blocks. She also produced five kills from 16 attempts, finishing with seven points. Her ability to stop opponents at the net translated into points in the opening match.

Aichi won the first set and reached set point first in the third. Although they lost 1–3, the final two sets were each decided by just two points. Yokota’s scoring blocks deserve attention within that closely contested match.

From the 20-point stage onward, Yokota converted one of two attacks for a 50.0% success rate, above her full-match figure of 31.3%. It was a small sample, but she contributed a late-set attacking point alongside her two blocks.

Outside the six players featured in our preview, Aichi’s Ayana Funane also made a contribution. Introduced alongside Ayano Sato in a double substitution in the fourth set, she finished the match with four kills from six attempts—an attack success rate of 66.7%.

Her four points also draw attention to the Sato–Funane combination. Funane converted four of six attempts from Sato’s sets, a 66.7% success rate. The numbers show the setter and attacker used in the double substitution combining to score.

Even with few attempts, a player can turn the balls entrusted to her into points. When assessing substitutes, it is worth looking beyond total points to how well they use their attacking opportunities. Funane’s four points give us another player to follow in the next match.