Shisa VC's Yuri Biggins led all spikers with 31 hitting winners during Saturday's final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
TOKYO – Last year’s heartbreak turned to Saturday’s joy for Sakurako Abe and her Christian Academy Japan teammates.
Abe recorded 15 hitting winners, Gloria Wang added 13 and Naya Cummings 10 for the Knights as they won their first American School In Japan YUJO volleyball tournament title. They held off Shisa VC of Okinawa 17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 27-29, 15-12 Saturday at Mustang Valley.
The Knights were the odd team out last year when 13 girls teams were mistakenly booked to fill 12 spots. Christian Academy Japan agreed to not compete, cheering on their boys counterparts to a third-place finish.
But Saturday brought redemption for CAJ, Abe and her teammates said.
“We showed that we were strong and that we belonged in the tournament,” said Abe, a senior who was named the Player of the Tournament. She also contributed two serving winners.
“We’ve been wanting this really badly,” said Cummings, whose parents are each CAJ alums; mom Lisa is the Knights’ coach and dad Caleb is CAJ’s athletics director.
“It was a great opportunity, to be a part of it and to win it,” Naya Cummings said.
The Knights, the defending Far East Division II Tournament champions, have had something of a rough regular season, having graduated several seniors. They lost to Seisen of Tokyo in Kanto Plain league play, but avenged that loss in Saturday’s semifinal.
“The girls brought it together,” Lisa Cummings said. “They shrugged it (Seisen loss) off, learned a lot and played to their potential and the girls brought it.”
Shisa VC's Ria McGriff scored 10 hitting winners, while CAJ's Annabelle Rudd recorded three block points. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Rameghlyn Doctolero had 55 set assists and five serving winners for Shisa VC in Saturday's final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Emily Demitrack receives serve for Shisa VC during Saturday's final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
CAJ’s Gloria Wang contributed 13 hitting winners and two block points against Shisa VC. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Winning runs in the family. From left, Knights volleyball coach Lisa Cummings, daughter Naya, a junior outside hitter, and Caleb Cummings, CAJ's athletics director. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Shisa VC, a privately funded club made up of Kubasaki High School players otherwise sidelined by the government shutdown, was trying for its second YUJO title as a club team in the last four years. Shisa won in 2021 when the coronavirus pandemic prevented them from competing as a school.
Shisa had not dropped a set in four matches en route to the final and won the first set against the Knights 25-17. But CAJ rallied in the next two sets, scoring the last five points of the third set to seize a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set went nearly 45 minutes. Shisa had three set points; three times denied by the Knights. CAJ arrived at one match point, but Shisa fought that one off.
With senior Yuri Biggins smacking two kills which hugged the left sideline, Shisa finally won the longest and the highest-scoring set of the match.
It was Abe who settled matters in the final set, nailing two hitting winners to put the Knights up 14-12, then a net error by Shisa sealed the victory.
Junior setter Misaki Matsuoka had 43 assists for the Knights, who also got three block points from Annabelle Rudd and five hitting winners from Mia Sakaguchi.
Rameghlyn Doctolero had 55 assists for Shisa, which got 31 hitting winners from Biggins, 10 each from Ria McGriff and Cameron Eavers, five service winners from Doctolero and three block points by Eavers.
“A lot of mistakes that could be easily fixed,” Doctolero said of what didn’t go right for Shisa, adding that the three-set semifinal win over host ASIJ took a lot out of the team.
“We gave it all in the first match. We started this match strong. I really wish we could have kept that energy for the rest of the match.”
It was a day for first-time YUJO tournament winners. On the boys side, led by Player of the Tournament Noah Michalski, British School Tokyo captured its first YUJO title in school history. The Lions outlasted Yokohama International 25-22, 28-26, 17-25, 25-19.
