The Italian men's volleyball league, Serie A, reached its sixth round, and Milan, the team that Japan's ace Ishikawa Yuki plays for, played away to Perugia, last season's runner-up, and was defeated in straight sets, 3-0.
Results
Perugia vs Milan 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-12)
In the early part of the first set, there was a battle for side outs, but Milan took a slight lead with a service ace from MB Chinenieze (France) and a counter spike from Ishikawa after a solid dig, which earned Milan a break. However, Perugia's OH Anderson (USA) and OH Leon (Poland) served hard against the Milan receivers, allowing them to turn the game around with consecutive breaks, and in the final stages, relief server OH Plotnicki (Ukraine) also scored an ace to blow Ishikawa away, giving Perugia the lead in the first set.
In the second set, Milan took side-outs mainly through OP Patry (France) and Ishikawa, while Perugia took side-outs mainly through Leon and OP Lihilicki (Luxembourg). Then, Milan's Jaski (USA) took an ace from Anderson, also from the US, giving Milan a two-point lead. However, Plotnicki, who replaced Anderson, again took the lead with consecutive breaks, including a service ace, and Perugia took the lead. Lihilicki also got a service ace, and Perugia, riding the momentum, took the second set.
In the third set, Plotnicki's bullet serve exploded from the beginning. With four consecutive breaks, including three consecutive aces, Perugia pulled away from Milan. Milan then looked for an opportunity to fight back, but continued to make serve errors and were unable to get a break chance. Meanwhile, Perugia overwhelmed Milan with their serves, including two aces against MB Russo (Italy), who came in as a relief server. Ace Leon also closed out the match point with a service ace, and Perugia won the third set, allowing Milan only 12 points. Milan was completely defeated by Perugia in straight sets. Perugia had 11 aces in the three sets that day. Of course they would win.
Ishikawa, personally, struggled on both offense and defense in this match. Looking at the numbers alone, his attack success rate was 31%, he was blocked for 4 points, and his serve reception rate was 29%, resulting in 4 aces. As mentioned above, Perugia was quite aggressive with their serves that day, so it must have been tough to receive them, and even when they did go up, there were few opportunities to spike in a good way. Milan's opposite Patri was also not in good form that day, so it seemed like the effects were felt by Ishikawa. Milan is a rather defensive team, so it would be ideal to win by making fewer mistakes, so it's tough when they can't respond to the opponent's serves like this. I hope they can somehow fix this in the next match and lead it to victory.
The MVP of the day was Perugia's Plotnicki, who hit five service aces. He's a Ukrainian player who doesn't often play against the Japanese national team, so I think he's not very familiar to Japanese people, but he's actually one of my favorite players (lol). He has a super strong serve, is a southpaw, and isn't very tall (though he's only 196cm), but he has excellent jumping ability and a long flight time, which allows him to hit sharp spikes. He's a player that makes you think that if Japan's Nishida were an outside hitter, he would be like this. He's also mentally strong, and even at match point, he hits bullet serves and scores aces. This season, he's been benched a lot because Anderson took his position, but he's still a young player at 24, so I hope you'll keep an eye on him.
Plotnicki of Perugia (Ukraine)
Milan will play Verona at home next time. They want to win this one for sure. Let's hope to see a sharp Yuki Ishikawa in the next game!
Photo: Lega Pallavolo Serie A
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