Daniel Kitsigoi started his participation in the Japanese championship impressively. The Varna-born opposite led Suntory Sunbirds Osaka to a home victory over Voreas Hokkaido with 3:1 (25:23, 17:25, 26:24, 25:23) on October 24.
The Romanian international with Bulgarian roots became the top scorer for the winners with 29 points - 25 from attack, two aces, and two blocks. Kitsigoi successfully completed 25 out of 43 attacks for a 58.1% success rate, and from the back row, he scored eight out of 11 attempts - 72.7%.
Thus, the son of former Bulgarian national player Radostina Gradeva-Kitsigoi left behind his famous teammate Egor Klyuka, who finished with 18 points, in the scoring rankings. Japanese international Kotaro Kai added 11.
Suntory won the contested first set but lost the second. The hosts narrowly won the third set 26:24, and after another evenly matched set, they closed the match 25:23.

photo: Nikolay Varadinov