In the 13th round of the Polish Men's Volleyball League (Przlyga), Nysza, ranked 8th in the league and played for by Miyaura Kento, played against Warsaw, ranked 10th, at home on Tuesday, December 6th local time, and lost 1-3 (25-18, 21-25, 15-25, 20-25).
Match report here ↓
After the match, we spoke with NISA's Miyaura Kento.
-What are your thoughts looking back on the match?
Miyaura: I think our serve was really good in the first set. The libero of the opponent wasn't in good form in the first set, but our serve was effective, so I think that was the reason we were able to win the first set. On the other hand, in the second set, the opponent corrected that part, their serve got better, and they started hitting short serves and hybrid serves, which disrupted our reception. And even in those parts where we were disrupted, I think the side players do well when they're doing well, but today we weren't able to do that. I think that not being able to do that was a big factor in the second, third, and fourth sets. Reception is definitely an issue, but even so, in the first half, our serve and side players managed to win. So in a sense, it's not good for our reception to collapse, but with that in mind, the side players have strengths in terms of serve and height, so I think we need to make the most of those. We are obviously thinking about our weak points, and we have to be, but when it comes to reception, we tend to get messed up during matches, so we have to work on that and I think we really have to play to our strengths.
-What efforts has the team made since the loss in the previous match?
Miyaura: Yes. Our serves didn't work in the match against Lesovia (Rzeszów), so we have to take risks and work on that. We've been told over and over to do our receptions, so we need to focus on that. The people who do receptions, the OH (outside hitters) have been practicing receptions even before the whole practice starts, and even on mornings when we only do weight training, the OH and liberos are still practicing receptions. Right now, I know it's strange for me to say this, but as an opposite, we're still losing a lot of serve points, so we really need to keep working on that. But as with the relationship there, we often lose points because the ball is hit between the receivers, so we need to fix that, and we still need to deal with short serves. If it's a short, arching serve, the middle one should take it, but when it's a really good (low trajectory) serve, the middle one touches it, so I think we need to fix that relationship or clarify it, and we need to work on it.
-You usually play as the first relief server, but today in the second set you ended up giving the relief server role to the other two players, which was unusual.
Miyaura: I think it was probably because I missed my serve in the first set, but I didn't really care about that serve. We were so far behind in points, so we wanted to go on the offensive, so I didn't really care about it. And I think it can't be helped since the coach used me like that.
--You came on as the opposite in the middle of the fourth set, and although you lost that set and the match, I think that you personally put in a very good performance. How did you feel about it?
Miyaura: In the middle of the match, Wasim (Bentala) was doing well in the first set, but his performance started to drop in the second, third, and fourth sets. So I somehow felt that it was my turn to play, so I went on the bench and organized in my head what I needed to do. I could see the opponent's blocks from the outside, so I could imagine them to some extent, and because I was able to do that, I think I was able to perform to a certain extent, but I still have a long way to go since we didn't win, and I wish I had more playing time.
-The coach said that he was a little late in putting Miyaura onto the court.
Miyaura: Quite a bit (laughs). The points difference was so large...
--But on your final serve today, you got an ace, which gave us hope of a comeback.
Miyaura: When that happened, I knew I had no choice but to attack, and OH Scharbuk (the serve target) was on the diagonal, so quite a few of the balls went to the libero, but I was in a good position, so I went for it with all my might.
-I think the challenges you face as a team are clear, but how do you think you should go about solving these challenges going forward?
Miyaura: I can't really say much about serves that are hit between the opponents, because the players who receive in the opposite position are doing their best, but it's the relationship between them. Including myself, short serves. Handling opposite and middle short serves. Our opponents hit a lot of serves today, and they analyzed that, and I think they did the same thing because we weren't able to handle the short serves at all, so I want to work on that relationship and the accuracy of opposite and middle serves.
-Changing the topic, your alma mater, Waseda University, missed out on their sixth consecutive victory at the recent All Japan Intercollegiate Championships. Did you watch the match?
Miyaura: I saw it on YouTube. Well, there is no such thing as a consecutive victory, or a game that you can definitely win, and although we won, there were many times when we almost lost, and I think that happened this year. There is also the opponent's condition. I haven't really seen what they've done or the process so far, so I'm not in a position to say anything, but I can say that they did a great job. It was a shame that they lost the game by two points in a full set, but they did a great job. I would like to say thank you to the players, staff, and everyone on the team, and praise them for their hard work.
--Otsuka was injured in the semi-finals.
Miyaura: That's right, Tatsunori... It was a case of things like that, and things just happened to go well for us, but there were also things like that... There was a lot of luck involved as well.
-Did you contact Otsuka after the tournament was over?
Miyaura: Not at all (laughs). I just watched it on YouTube.
-Have you not contacted any of your other juniors at Waseda?
Miyaura: No (laughs).
- I understand (laughs). Thank you very much.
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