Competing in the second division of the Kanto University Volleyball Association, J. F. Oberlin University’s women’s volleyball team won its first league championship in the spring season this year, qualifying the team to play against the bottom team of the first division. On Saturday, May 26, they defeated Waseda University by a score of 3–2 and won promotion to the league’s top division.

The match took place at the Tamagawa Campus of Komazawa University. From start to finish, it was an exciting, seesaw battle, with J. F. Oberlin winning the first set, only to see the next two sets go Waseda’s way.

The fourth set was tough, but after a long rally, J. F. Oberlin took the set and forced a deciding fifth set. It went right down to the wire, but when J. F. Oberlin finally sealed their dramatic victory, the players and all their supporters—family members, alumni, and cheerleaders among them—burst into a celebration.

Through tears of joy, team captain Arisa Tsuyuki, a fourth-year student in the College of Business Management, commented later, “The fourth-year team members are especially proud to have reached the top division because it’s been our goal ever since we entered the university. It was a tough match, but we never gave up and never stopped encouraging each other, and that’s what enabled us to win.”

The team’s head coach, Takeshi Ikeda, a staff member in the university’s Student Affairs Section, “We’re happy to be able to reward the people who’ve been supporting us all season long. We’re not going to get complacent now; as part of the league’s top division, the players and coaches need to redouble their efforts to make ourselves worthy of their continued support.”