In the qualifying round for the 5th place playoff in the Italian Men's Volleyball League Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Cisterna away on Thursday, March 16th local time, and won 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-18).
Takahashi Ai was not in the starting lineup for this match, and only appeared as a relief server towards the end of the first set.
First set starting lineup
Padua
OH: Gardini (Italy), De Smet (Belgium)
MB: Canella (Italy), Crosato (Italy)
OP: Guzzo (Italy)
S: Zoppellari (Italy)
L: Zenger (Germany)
Cisterna
OH: Sedlacek (Croatia), Bayram (Türkiye)
MB: Mattei (Italy), Rossi (Italy)
OP: Dirlic (Croatia)
S: Zanni (Italy)
L: Stafolini (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, Cisterna broke early on with blocks from MB Mattei and took a 0-3 lead.
However, Padua tied the score at 10-10 with a spike from OH Gardini and a block from MB Guzzo, and then with a block from MB Cannella and other efforts, they managed to turn the game around to 18-16.
Then, in the final minutes, OH Gardini hit two consecutive service aces to make the score 23-19. Although relief server Takahashi made a mistake on the serve that followed, substitute OH Asparuhov (Bulgaria) made a block and Padua took the set 25-21.
In the second set, Padua took a 6-3 lead early on thanks to OH Gardini's spikes and opponents' mistakes.
From there, Padua widened the gap to 14-9 thanks to a spike from OP Guzzo and a set mistake by S Zanni of Cisterna.
After that, Cisterna scored four consecutive breaks from OH Bayram's serve, including a service ace and a spike from OP Dilic, to tie the score at 17-17, but OP Guzzo immediately scored a spike to make it 18-17, preventing Padua from making a comeback.
In the final minutes, Padua took a two-point lead at 23-21 after another set error by S. Zanni, and finally took the set 25-22 after an OH Byram touched the net.
In the third set, Padua extended their lead to 7-2 early on with spikes and blocks from MB Canella and pipe attacks from OH De Smet.
Cisterna narrowed the gap to 7-5 with a service ace from OH Bayram, but then OH Gardini scored two service aces to put Padua ahead again at 12-6.
From there, Cisterna continued to get side outs, mainly through OH Byram, but they made noticeable mistakes during the break, and the set ended with the score still 20-14.
On the other hand, Padova went on to win the set 24-16 with a spike from OH Gardini, his fifth service ace of the day, and a spike from OP Guzzo, and quickly advanced to match point at 24-16. Finally, OH Sedlacek made a serve error, and Padova took the set 25-18 and won 3-0 against Cisterna.
MVP: OH Davide Gardini (17 points (5 on serve), 55% attack success rate, 24% serve reception success rate)
Ai Takahashi played as a relief server in the first set but did not score any points.
The next match will be against Taranto away on Wednesday, March 26th at 15:30 local time (23:30 Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
Milan won in straight sets against Cisterna, who finished 9th in the regular season with a point difference of 8 points and who had failed to win either of their two matches!!!
However, looking at the members, both teams had dropped some players from the regular season, so it felt like a practice match.
It's true that Guardini was impressive with his five aces, but even through the screen the atmosphere of the match was somewhat lukewarm.
In the first place, Padova had terminated the contracts of its key players, Petkovic (Serbia) and Cisterna, outside player Caliberda (Germany), before the match, and Padova and Cisterna were conserving Takahashi and Baranovic (Italy), the setter and mainstay of their teams.
As a result, Padua managed to pull through thanks to De Smet's unusually strong serve reception in place of Takahashi, but Cisterna's substitute setter made repeated setting errors.
Especially the second set was hard to watch because it was a set where they could have scored a cisterna if they had played normally.
It is true that both teams were only three or four days removed from their final regular season games, so it's possible that they were resting their main players, but even so, it seemed like neither team was doing everything they could to win.
I guess neither club is very motivated for the fifth place match, or rather, they probably don't want to go if they can avoid it (laughs).
If they were to advance to the fifth place match, the end of the season would be extended until May, there would be a lot of games, and the top teams that lost in the playoffs would also be participating, so the chances of them winning all the way to the end are low.
For reasons such as those mentioned above, motivation is likely to be low for all teams in this 5th place deciding qualifying match.
Taranto, who have yet to play a game, have already terminated their contract with opposite Lawani, and I think that like Padova and Cisterna, they will likely go into the match with a team that is more like a development squad rather than a serious one.
With this in mind, it's becoming doubtful whether we'll be able to see Takahashi play in the future...
For now, let's wait and see what kind of members they will bring out for the next match against Talland.
Photo: Lega Pallavolo SerieA
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