Making the most of On-the-Court 3: the numbers behind Thailand’s opening doubleheader
SAGA Hisamitsu Springs and Aleeza Aichi opened their season with two matches in Thailand on October 10 and 11. Hisamitsu won both, 3–1 and 3–2.
From this season, teams can field three foreign players at the same time. With one additional Asian-player slot, up to four can be on court together.
Aichi started three foreign attackers on both days. Hisamitsu combined Levinska and Stalnaya with Japanese players. Points, setter–attacker combinations, late-set attacks and scoring on serve reveal how each team built its scoring.
Aichi’s trio score 106 points as setter combinations change
Across the two matches, Aichi’s three foreign attackers scored 38 points through Künzler, 38 through Lindsey and 30 through Martínez. Their combined 106 points accounted for 67.1% of the team’s 158 points from attacks, blocks and aces.
Nootsara, occupying the Asian-player slot, was the starting setter in the first match. Ayano Sato started the second. Künzler was one attacker whose numbers improved.
From Nootsara’s sets in the first match, Künzler made nine kills from 27 attempts, a 33.3% success rate. From Sato’s sets in the second, she made 16 kills from 34 attempts, or 47.1%. Her total attack points also rose from 12 to 21.
Lindsey made 11 kills from 36 attempts both from Nootsara’s sets on day one and from Sato’s sets on day two. Martínez made 13 kills from 27 attempts with Nootsara in the opener, then nine from 16 with Sato in the second match.
A change of setter alone cannot explain the difference in performance. But grouping all three attackers together would obscure important changes: Künzler received more attacking opportunities and scored more, while Martínez continued scoring from fewer attempts.
Levinska’s 57 points—and a 50.0% late-set attack rate
Hisamitsu’s Levinska scored 31 points in the first match and 26 in the second, for a total of 57. Her attack figures alone were 50 kills from 118 attempts.
Her contribution also stands out late in sets. Once her team had reached 20 points, she made six kills from 11 attempts in the opener, a 54.5% success rate. In the second match, she made four from nine, or 44.4%. Combined, that was 10 kills from 20 attempts: 50.0%. This calculation covers sets played to 25 points and excludes the fifth set played to 15.
Sae Nakajima scored 38 points across the two matches. She started all nine sets and made 34 kills from 96 attempts. From Erika Sakae’s sets specifically, she made 15 kills from 34 attempts in the first match, or 44.1%, and 12 from 25 in the second, or 48.0%.
After her team reached 20 points, however, Nakajima made five kills from 13 attempts in the opener and none from three in the second match. Attacking opportunities and success rates differ between the whole match and its closing stages. Alongside Levinska and Nakajima’s total points, it is useful to track when the balls went their way.
Araki’s eight blocks and Sakae’s 56.9% serving break rate
Hisamitsu’s attack success rate in the second match was 36.08%, almost level with Aichi’s 36.98%. Both teams had five aces, and both scored 101 points overall. One area where Hisamitsu led was scoring blocks, 13–10.
Ayaka Araki supplied eight of Hisamitsu’s 13 blocks. She also made 10 kills from 16 attempts, a 62.5% success rate, and added an ace for 19 points. That was a substantial increase from her eight points in the opener.
Araki’s attacks from Sakae’s sets rose from three kills in 14 attempts, or 21.4%, in the first match to seven in 13, or 53.8%, in the second. As Levinska’s total attack points fell from 28 to 22, Araki’s rose from four to 10.
Sakae also stands out on serve. Hisamitsu scored on 15 of her 26 serves in the opener and on 14 of 25 in the second match. Across both matches, the team won 29 of the 51 rallies on her serve: a serving break rate of 56.9%, well above Hisamitsu’s overall 35.8%.
Sakae herself recorded one ace across the two matches. Even so, her team repeatedly scored while she was serving. This measure includes the blocks, defence and transition attacks that follow a serve. Alongside ace totals, it is another number behind Hisamitsu’s two wins.
Japanese-player selections also reshape the scoring
Hisamitsu’s Ayane Kitamado started the fourth set of the first match and the fourth and fifth sets of the second. She made 17 attack points across the two matches, including four kills from 12 attempts after her team had reached 20 points.
For Aichi, Shiori Mitome did not play in the opener but started from the third set of the second match and scored eight attack points. Aichi also won six of the 13 rallies on her serve, a serving break rate of 46.2%.
The expanded foreign-player slots create more options, and Japanese-player selections are changing within those options too. Aichi’s foreign trio scored 106 points. Hisamitsu had Levinska’s 50.0% late-set attack rate, Araki’s eight blocks and Sakae’s 56.9% serving break rate. Following both the scoring sources and the combinations that produce those points offers a way to watch the new season.