In the first match of the second half of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, 10th-placed Padova, the team Takahashi Ai plays for, played away to 2nd-placed Modena on Sunday, December 18th local time, and lost 0-3 (23-25, 20-25, 23-25).
In this match, Takahashi played as a starter and performed well, scoring a team-high 17 points, but was unable to lead his team to victory.
First set starting lineup
Padua
OH: Takahashi, De Smet (Belgium)
MB: Volpato (Italy), Crosato (Italy)
OP: Petkovic (Serbia)
S: Saitta (Italy)
L: Zenger (Germany)
Modena
OH: Engapé (France), Rinaldi (Italy)
MB: Sanguinetti (Italy), Stankovic (Serbia)
OP: Lagumzia (Türkiye)
S: Bruno (Brazil/Italy)
L: Gorrini (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
In the first set, Padua took the lead with a sharp left spike from Takahashi, but OH De Smet made a spike error and OP Petkovic was caught in a block, giving Modena a 2-5 lead.
However, Padua caught up with an ace from MB Crosart to make it 5-5, and the game continued with both teams trading side outs until the middle of the match, when OP Lagumusia scored a spike from OH Ngape's serve to give Modena a 11-14 lead.
After that, OP Laguzia scored consecutive aces to widen the gap to 14-19, but when the serve came to OH Takahashi at 17-21, he got an ace with a short serve in front of Modena's OH Rinaldi, and continued to serve effectively after that, scoring with his own back attack on the counter, closing the gap to just one point at 20-21.
Padua continued their tenacious rally, and with a block from MB Volpato and a spike from OH De Smet, they tied the score at 23-23.
However, shortly afterwards, a quick serve from MB Sanguinetti gave Modena a set point, and his subsequent serve was an ace, giving Modena the set 23-25.
In the second set, Padua's OH Takahashi scored one after another with sharp movements from the beginning, but Modena also continued to score points mainly from OH Ngape, and although the score gap did not widen, Modena took a slight lead at 13-15 going into the middle of the set.
After that, Modena finally managed to break consecutively with a block from OJ Ngape and a service ace from OH Rinaldi, taking a 14-18 lead, and then with a quick from MB Sanguinetti and a block from OP Lagumuzia to stop OH De Smet, Modena extended their lead to 18-23.
In the end, OP Laguzia's spike was successful and Modena took the set 20-25.
In the third set, with no other options, Padua sent MB Canella onto the court in place of MB Volpato and OH Gardini in place of OH De Smet from the start.
In the early stages, Modena scored points with spikes from OP Lagmuzia and also managed to break serve, taking a 5-7 lead.
Modena continued to extend their lead to 10-14 with blocks from MB Sanguinetti and OP La Musia.
Padua's OH Takahashi scored a high-speed pipe attack to make it 12-15, and then OH Gardini's controlled serve worked, with three consecutive breaks, including one service ace, to tie the score at 15-15.
However, thanks to a service ace from OP La Musia and consecutive attack errors from Padua, Modena took the lead again at 17-20 in the final minutes.
After that, OH Takahashi got a nice set and OP Petkovic scored a spike to bring Padova back to within one point at 20-21, but they were unable to score the final point.
In the end, OP Lagumuzia scored a solid spike to win the set 23-25, and Modena won 0-3 against Padua, getting revenge for the first half.
MVP: MB Giovanni Sanguinetti (14 points (1 serve, 2 blocks), attack success rate 851 TP 3 T)
Takahashi had the most points on the team with 17 points (1 on serve), an attack success rate of 621 TP3T (0 conceded points), and a serve receive success rate of 381 TP3T.
This puts Padua in provisional 10th place with a record of 4 wins, 8 losses and 9 points.
The next race will be against 5th-placed Roubaix Civitanova at home, starting at 18:00 local time on Monday, December 26th (2:00 am Japan time), just after Christmas.
The report for the first half is here:
Thoughts etc.
This day was an on-site interview.
I had watched a match in Cisterna the day before, so after the match I first travelled by train to Rome and then took an overnight bus to Modena.
The Rome Tiburtina bus terminal seemed unsafe, with many black people who clearly did not look like they were waiting for a bus.
We arrived in Modena around 6am.
From here, we head to the inn where the kind owner kindly agreed to allow us to check in early in the morning, which is a 10-minute walk away.
When I got off the bus, I realized that I had lost one of the gloves (my left hand) that I had bought on Black Friday last month, and I was a little shocked, but I managed to arrive at my lodging.
When I was a student, I could sleep soundly on a night bus and be active from the morning after arriving, but I was no longer able to fully recover from fatigue on a night bus, and as soon as I arrived at the accommodation, I was wrapped in futon and lost consciousness...
Having spent most of the day sleeping and having successfully recovered my strength, I finally head to Pala Panini, the headquarters of Modena Valley.
Pala Panini is a 30-minute walk from the inn.
It's about a 30-minute walk from Modena Station, so I think it's one of the gymnasiums that is relatively easy to access among the venues in Italy.
The three Mouse Brothers, who are the mascots of the sponsoring company, welcomed us.
Being a popular club team, there was a wide selection of merchandise available for purchase.
The inside of the arena looks like this.
Although Pala Panini has a maximum capacity of about 5,000 people, the number of spectators on this day was 4,207, more than 80% of the capacity.
Moreover, even though the FIFA World Cup final was being held right up until the match, the fact that such a large number of people attended is something you would expect from Modena (although many of the male customers at the venue were watching the soccer game on their smartphones until the very last minute (lol)).
Also, today was "Teddy Day" in conjunction with Christmas, and there was an event where donations of stuffed animals were collected from the audience, so perhaps that is why there were so many people in the audience (I was quite surprised because I didn't know this beforehand, haha).
I remembered that when I was talking to a volleyball fan in Modena some time ago, he told me, "Soccer is the most popular sport in Italy, but volleyball is the most popular in Modena."
That shows just how much the sport of volleyball is loved by the people of Modena.
However, Padua's supporters, "MEN IN BLACK," arrived at the venue early on and made their presence known, just as much as the Modena fans.
In addition, the flags of the countries where the foreign players and staff of that season are from are displayed in a corner of the Modena venue.
When I first went to Pala Panini about seven years ago, it was the season when Ishikawa was there, so the Japanese flag was on full display! (However, by that time, Ishikawa had already returned to Japan in the middle of the season...)
I look forward to seeing the day when Japanese flags will be lined up here again.
The day before, I covered the Cisterna vs. Milan match, which ended with Milan losing 1-3.
I have seen six games in Italy so far featuring Japanese players, and they have always been a kind of jinx to the team with the Japanese player in them, as they have all ended up losing.
If things continued like this, I would feel bad for the players, and I myself would not be able to do my reporting comfortably, so I really wanted them to win this game.
However, while Milan had lost the first half against Cisterna, Padua's home match against Modena this season ended in a fierce battle that went to the full set, with Padua scoring a major victory.
It's true that Modena has definitely gotten stronger since the beginning of the season, but we've already won once, so even though they're a strong team, there's still hope!!
Sorry to all the Modena fans at the venue! (laughs)
With such expectations in mind, I waited on standby until the match began.
On this day, Takahashi looked relaxed but serious as he calmly went through his warm-up, making one-to-one passes with Fedde (Crossart) as he always does, and checking his spikes and serves as he always does.
And then the game begins.
It was our Takahashi who scored the first goal brilliantly early in the game.
That is to say, Takahashi was in top form that day, he was in a state of awakening, he was in fifth gear, he was just awesome!!!
Not only were his serve receives and passing plays great, but his jumps seemed higher than usual and his attacks were successful without any losses!
He took 26 shots with an attack success rate of 621 TP and 3 T with no runs allowed!!?!?!
This is an astounding number.
Furthermore, when he was trailing by a large margin at the end of the first set, he made consecutive breaks in serve to create opportunities for a comeback.
He also made several digs to help his team out of trouble.
Looking at each player individually, it was Takahashi who showed the best performance throughout the match, not only compared to the Padova players but also to the Modena players.
It was so amazing that everyone in the press box was laughing (laughs).
The MEN IN BLACK members were extremely excited and shouted "Go for it!"
A little girl who was a Padua fan diagonally behind me was letting out roars of excitement after every play (lol).
Of course, Modenafon must have been amazed by Takahashi's fantastic performance.
But we still couldn't win.
Not only did I not win, I didn't even take a single set...
The first and third sets in particular were very close, and it would not have been surprising if Padua had won the set, but they just couldn't get that one more point.
To borrow the words of Fukuzawa's previous commentary, both Padova and Modena are side-out teams.
However, Modena has more powerful servers and therefore has more breaking power.
Therefore, Padua was determined to take the lead and push the match forward until the end, but their opponents ended up trailing in each set.
It was also a blow that Padova's other key player, OP Petkovic, didn't have any power in his serves.
Basically, Padua's biggest break chances come when Takahashi and Petkovic are serving, so if their serves don't work, it will be very difficult to win.
Takahashi and Petkovic are the two wheels of the Padova team.
No matter which team is doing well, if the other team is missing it's still difficult to win the game.
That's what I thought about during the match.
Also, we were unable to stop our opponents' OP Laguna Musia and MB Sanguinetti until the end.
Like Takahashi, they also did not concede any goals.
This is also a frustrating point as OH Ngape and OH Rinaldi on the left side were able to be kept in check to a certain extent.
However, I think that with regards to serve reception, which is always an issue, he held up well except for the first set, and I also think it was a positive thing that we could see the potential of Gardini, who was selected for the third set, both offensively and defensively.
As for Gardini, I think he would be perfectly fine to be in the starting lineup if he could work better with the setter.
He was doing a lot of digging and his blocks were high.
However, I think it was a very disappointing loss for Takahashi, as he was in top form individually.
He roared in frustration when the score widened to 17-20 towards the end of the third set, and after the match ended he forgot to say goodbye to the supporters and immediately sat down on the bench, lost in thought.
However, I am sure that this experience will help him evolve into a person of a higher level.
Takahashi was praised by Modena's captain, Bruno, who plays for Brazil, with a hug after the match.
No matter how disappointed she was, she always had a smile on her face when interacting with fans after the game, and in interviews it seemed like she had already moved on and was moving forward.
I hope that they will continue to overcome obstacles, defy our expectations in a good way, and continue to grow!!
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A, author's photo
Here are the comments from the players after the match:
English 
Japanese