We went on another Italian volleyball reporting trip from Saturday, January 21st to Monday, January 23rd, 2023!
My original plan for this trip was to cover the match between Milan (Ishikawa Yuki) and Verona in Verona on Saturday, and the match between Padua (Takahashi Ai) and Taranto in Padua on Sunday, but the match in Verona was changed to during the day on Sunday, which left me with nothing to do on Saturday.
I thought it would be a waste not to do anything there, so I did some research and found that there was a women's Serie A match being held on Saturday close to Treviso Airport, and it was a home game for Imocco Valley Conegliano, the team currently first in the league, so I added it to my itinerary.
On the morning of our departure, there was a heavy snowfall in Warsaw and the whole area was covered in snow.
I thought it would be warm in Italy, but although there was no snow, it wasn't as bad as I expected and it was just as cold there... Why?
We arrived at Treviso airport around 2pm.
Since I have some time before the match starts at 8pm, I head to the center of Treviso and wander around.
By the way, Treviso Airport is an airport in the Venice area exclusively for LCCs, and plays a role similar to that of Bergamo Airport in Milan or Modlin Airport in Warsaw.Although you probably won't use it when traveling from Japan, it is cheap and convenient for traveling within Europe.
Another attractive feature is that it takes just an hour by bus to get to Padua, where Takahashi lives, for just about 5 euros (700 yen).
Treviso city centre can be reached from the airport in around 10 minutes by bus.
The city center is compact and you can probably get around it in about half a day.
In the evening, we checked into our accommodation near Treviso Station and headed to the venue.
It took about 30 minutes by bus to get to the venue, and we arrived at Parablade about an hour before the start of the match.
The outside doesn't look that great, but the atmosphere was nice.
There was also a snack bar selling food and drinks and a team merchandise shop inside the building.
The Imokko uniform looked so cool that I hesitated for a moment about buying it, but then I imagined myself wearing it and decided not to (lol).
Inside the arena, the pink courts, which are not seen at the men's venues, were very impressive (it seems that all the courts at the women's Serie A venues have this color scheme).
The arena has over 5,000 seats and the seats are close to the court, making it a very easy arena to see.
Here is a brief introduction to Imocco Valley Conegliano (hereinafter Imocco).
Although Imocco is a relatively new team, having been founded in 2012, it is one of the strongest women's teams in Italy, having won the Italian League five times, the Coppa Italia four times, the European Champions League once, and the World Club Championship twice.
Our home town is Conegliano, but the arena is located closer to Treviso than Conegliano (I don't know why lol).
Japanese player Nobuyuki Nagaoka was also a member of the team in 2018 (although he returned to Japan midway through the season due to injury).
This season, the team is currently leading the league with a lineup that includes the world's best active opposite, Haak (Sweden), as well as Robinson (USA, formerly with Toyota Auto Body) and Plummer (USA, formerly with DENSO), who have all played in Japan's V-League, and Libero De Gennaro, a fixture on the Italian national team.
At the top of the arena of this powerful club, there are rows of pennants representing all the titles they have won.
There was also a pennant commemorating 76 consecutive wins in official games, which is a Guinness World Record.
By the way, the team's nickname is "Pantele," which means black panther in Italian.
So they are the Italian "Panthers"! (laughs)
While all this was going on, the players entered the field.
I usually only watch male athletes, so it was a bit surprising to see a female athlete up close for the first time in a while (laughs).
However, the way they work seriously from the warm-up onwards is just as cool as the boys.
Imocco's opponent that day was Vallefoglia, a team in its second season in A1.
Although the team has players such as former JT Marvelous player Druse (USA) and former Russian national team player Kosheleva, they are struggling so far this season, ranking 10th out of 14 teams.
Since Imocco won the first half of the league matches 3-0, I have a feeling this match will also end quickly... (laughs).
As the start of the match approached, the seats began to fill up.
In Japan's V League, it seems that there are relatively more female spectators at men's games and more male spectators at women's games, but in Italy, it didn't seem like there was much difference between the male and female customer base.
People of all ages and genders, including uncles, aunties, older brothers, older sisters, and children, all of whom were likely supporting the local team, came to the venue (though if I had to say, there were a lot of older men, but the same was true for the boys).
And so the match begins.
The first set was a close one, but OP Haak's spikes and serves were so amazing that I couldn't help but laugh (lol)
He is 196cm tall, has a maximum height of 330cm, and has outstanding punching power, so his spikes are almost like those of a man's!!
At least among Japanese high school boys, I think they are generally at the top level in the country.
Even as a guy, I think the form is so cool that I could watch it forever.
Although it was early in the game, just seeing this player play made me feel like it was worth coming to watch.
However, Vallefoglia also scored spikes from OP Druz and OH Kosheleva to take a 12-16 lead at the middle of the game.
OP Haack's spike from above the opponent's block caught up and made it deuce in the final stages, but at the very last moment Haack was caught in a block and Vallefoglia won the first set at 25-27.
Seeing how he had been performing well throughout the set but lost a spike at the end, the words of Ishikawa, who had talked about "the strength to see it through to the end," came to mind.
However, from the second set onwards, Imocco was as if reborn, displaying his champion-level volleyball.
In the second set, from the beginning, not only did Haake's spikes but also his blocks stopped OH Kosheleva many times, and with MB Sala's (Italy) sharp quicks, they overwhelmed the team with a 7-1 victory.
Vallefoglia continued to struggle against solid block defense, but Imocco saw many players score to take the second set 25-18.
The third set started with a two from S. Vołosz and went 7-4, with Imocco at the lead.
In the middle of the match, Vallefoglia's OP Druz scored a series of goals to tie the score at 13-13, but then Imocco's MB Federica, who came in as relief server, took the lead with a hybrid serve, scoring six consecutive breaks including four aces to push their opponents to the brink of despair at 20-13.
MB Squarcini, who was a relief server in yesterday's match, had a wicked serve. Her basic style is a high-speed jump floater, but she occasionally uses a hybrid with spin. She even used a side spin yesterday, and got about four aces in a row. She's also beautiful. Her boyfriend is Monza's libero, Federici. pic.twitter.com/ktIWjF8EFw
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 22, 2023
That serve was really brutal.
Basically her serve is a jump floater, but it has a lot of speed, and she also hits her driven serves from the same form in a tricky spot, so I imagine it must be really tough for the person receiving the serve.
On one serve, I put a lot of side spin on it and it kind of went wide, so I could really do whatever I wanted (laughs).
I thought it would be fun to hit it.
At this time, the children from a local volleyball club, who were probably invited guests, started calling out "Imo-kko" in a tremendous way, and their calls naturally became a chant for the whole venue, filling the venue with them.
I really love this kind of home game feeling.
And so Imokko won this set as well, 25-17.
From the beginning of the fourth set, OP Haake, who had been conserving the ball since the middle of the second set, started to gather the ball again and scored spikes from above the blocks, going 11-3 and deciding the match in one go.
However, Vallefoglia also showed some strength in the middle of the game, mainly through OP Druse, and closed the gap to 18-17, but in the final stages OP Haak and others pulled away again, and Imocco won the set 25-20, 3-1!
We weren't sure what would happen in the first set, but from the second set onwards she showed off her queen-level volleyball skills.
I thought that the Japanese players would provide some fan service after the game like the boys, but they seemed a little more reserved than the boys, and there didn't seem to be many popular players who actively provided fan service...
Also, at this venue, even media was not allowed to enter the court after the game to interview players, so I had to give up on my desired interview with OP Haack...
I also wanted to speak to the captain, S. Wołosz, who is Polish, in my poor Polish, but that didn't happen either.
However, I did manage to chat for a few words with Robinson, a former colleague of Kent who played for Toyota Auto Body last season and with whom I currently run a YouTube channel together (I thought I had taken a photo of him, but when I checked later I realized that I hadn't pressed the shutter button (lol)).
However, I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to interview anyone properly, so if I have the chance again, I would like to try again to cover the women's volleyball team!!
Women's volleyball is also interesting, and Italy in particular is one of the top leagues in the world, so the play is exciting and the excitement in the stadium is fantastic, so it was a great discovery and experience.
Thank you Imokko Valley!!!
On the way back, there was no bus, so I asked another Italian journalist to call a taxi for me.
The fare to the center of Treviso was 25 euros, which was as I had been told, but when they came to pick me up at the venue the meter had already reached 16 euros, which surprised me (lol).
There was a hotel close to the venue, but it was expensive.
I chose to stay at a hotel closer to Treviso Station because it was cheaper, even taking into account the taxi fare, but that night in Treviso made me think that someday I would like to be able to stay in an expensive hotel without hesitation.
Photo: Author, LEGA VOLLEY FEMMINILE
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