Japan rebounded on the second day of action at The World Games 2025 to cruise past China, 18-3, in the women’s sixes competition in Chengdu.
Japan needed a win to stay in the hunt for a semifinal berth ahead of a blockbuster clash with Great Britain on Saturday, and found its attacking groove against China, highlighted by a dominant and efficient opening half.
“The image of Japan has always been the speed and small techniques, and that’s something we do have pride in,” said Monika Jones of Japan via a translator. “But because we’re aiming for a higher rank, we’re now looking for things we need to challenge ourselves in, like mid-range shots, coming into the zone with more speed, more precision, and more detail. We want to be able to showcase that.”
Japan improved to 1-1 in Pool A while China moved to 0-2.
Japan started the game with an immaculate 6-0 first quarter, smothering the China attack when necessary, and patiently unlocking the deep China defensive line.
Oda Atusko’s playmaking was instrumental early on and Japan focused on taking shots in valuable areas of the field.
By the end of the day, Atusko finished with a goal and five assists for six points. Monika Jones led the team with four goals and four assists.
All 10 field players in the squad landed on the scoresheet, with Nene Kawai and Kokoro Nakazawa recording five points each.
Japan as a whole limited China to just 13 shots, and swarmed China en route to 26 turnovers, while committing just three itself.
Becky Yang made 12 saves for China in defeat. Cindy Jia scored China’s first goal, while Lee Chen and Xinyi Zhao also scored in front of another strong Chinese crowd on hand.
Japan faces Great Britain with both teams at 1-1 in a de-facto play-in game to advance to the semifinal, with the clash set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. China closes pool play against Canada at 10:30 a.m.
Gallery
We had a discussion yesterday about clearing the space inside a little more, inside in better condition than we did yesterday. It was a little difficult against China because they were defending small, but we feel that it’s getting better as we go along the tournament. There’s a lot of progress as we went along in the game.
Monika Jones
4 goals, 4 assists
