In the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Milan, where Ishikawa Yuki plays, played the fifth match of the playoff quarter-finals against Perugia at home on Monday, April 10th local time, and won 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 29-27, 25-23).
Yuki Ishikawa was in the starting lineup for this match as well, and contributed greatly to the team's victory with a team-high 18 points, for which he was also selected as MVP.
As a result, Milan advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 3 wins and 2 losses.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ishikawa
MB: Rosell (Argentina), piano (Italy)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Perugia
OH: Semeniuk (Poland), Plotnicki (Ukraine)
MB: Flavio (Brazil), Russo (Italy)
OP: Herrera (Cuba)
S: Giannelli (Italy)
L: Coraci (Italy) / Piccinelli (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
The first set started with a spike point from Ishikawa, but from there both players made serve errors and the score remained at 7-7.
However, Perugia then took a 9-13 lead with a spike from Semeniuk off a Plotnicki serve.
Furthermore, Perugia succeeded in five consecutive breaks in one go, with a spike from Plotnicki and two attacks from Giannelli off OH Semeniuk's serve, and widened the gap to 14-22.
At 17-24, Ishikawa scored a service ace to get some revenge, but in the end, he made a serve error and Perugia took the set 18-25.
In the second set, Perugia took a 5-8 lead early on with consecutive breaks thanks to spikes from Plotnicki and blocks from Herrera.
However, Milano turned the game around with four consecutive breaks from Pollo's serve, including an ace from his own service and an attack from Ishikawa, to take an 11-9 lead.
Milano further extended their lead to 14-10 with a service ace from Ishikawa.
From there, mistakes by Milan and a spike by Semeniuk allowed Perugia to tie the score at 19-19, but a service ace by Ishikawa and a spike by substitute Ebadipoour (OH, Iran) gave Milan a break and put them up 24-20 and at set point.
In the end, Semeniuk missed a spike, and Milan took the set 25-21.
In the third set, Milano took a 7-4 lead early on with a service ace from Porro and a quick from Rosell after a set by Ishikawa.
Perugia closed the gap to just one point at 10-9 with an ace from Herrera and a spike from Semeniuk, but Milan quickly closed the gap to 13-9 with a spike and ace from Patri.
After that, Herrera scored consecutive spikes to bring Perugia to within one point at 19-18, and then with three consecutive breaks from Giannelli's serve and a block from Flavio, Perugia successfully turned the game around to 22-23.
However, Milan scored consecutive side outs with Ishikawa's spike to bring the score to deuce at 24-24, and then Ebadipoour scored a counter attack from solid defense to put Milan back in the lead at 27-26.
Finally, Perugia's Herrera missed a spike, and Milan took the set 29-27.
In the fourth set, Milano started off with a two-attack from Porro, which resulted in a break, and then Ishikawa scored a pipe attack after a rally, giving Milano a 5-2 lead.
Perugia's Herrera scored consecutive spikes, but Milan's lead remained at 12-9.
However, Ishikawa stepped on Rosell's foot when landing, hurting his leg and was replaced by Ebadipour.
From here, Perugia tied the score at 15-15 with a block from Semeniuk and a pipe attack from substitute Leon (OH, Poland), but Milan did not allow the comeback with a service ace from Melgarejo and a score of 18-16.
After that, Perugia tied the score at 20-20 again after an attack error by Ebadipour, but when Ishikawa returned to the court, a block from Rosell put Perugia at 22-20 again.
With Leon serving at 23-22, Melgarejo scored a spike from a perfect pass from Ishikawa to put the score at 24-22, and Milan then took match point at 24-22. After a final rally, Ishikawa scored a powerful pipe attack to make it 25-23, giving Milan a 3-1 victory over Perugia.
MVP: Yuki Ishikawa (18 points (3 on serve), attack success rate 371 TP3T, serve reception success rate 54%)
As a result, Milan won the playoff quarter-finals with a score of 3-2 and advanced to the semi-finals.
Their opponent in the semi-finals will be Ruba Civitanova, who finished 4th in the regular season.
The first leg of the playoff semi-finals will be held away at Civitanova on Thursday, April 13th at 8:30pm local time (3:30am Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
Amazing achievement!!!
Yuki Ishikawa has once again made history in Milan.
The club reached the Italian League semi-finals for the first time in its history.
Moreover, they won three times against Perugia, who were in first place and had shown overwhelming strength by being undefeated in the regular season, and in the end they achieved a come-from-behind victory away from home, with the enthusiastic cheers of Perugia's supporters roaring through the air.
On this day, I was at the venue watching the outcome of the game.
The Perugia supporters were seated directly behind me, so their voices were incredibly loud; I've seen many games in person, but this was probably the noisiest venue I've been to (laughs).
In this overwhelmingly home-like atmosphere, Perugia played ideal volleyball, keeping Milan at bay until the beginning of the second set with their spikes, serves and blocks working well.
However, what saved Ishikawa from what he described as "being overwhelmed by the atmosphere" was Pollo's serve in the second set.
Milano got into a rhythm with four consecutive breaks and stayed in the lead until the end of the match, finishing with a pipe attack from Ishikawa, the MVP of the day, to give Milan a 3-1 victory.
MVP Ishikawa Yuki's contributions to the victory are immeasurable, including his top score on the team, his contributions on defense and encouragement to his teammates, his explosions of joy after every point, and his scoring ability in crucial moments in the final minutes. However, I've decided to think of three other reasons why he thought the team won.
①Milan's solid defense
First of all, regarding serve reception, I think it was very important that we limited Perugia, who had the most service aces per set in the regular season, to just one in four sets.
Not only Ishikawa and Ebadipoule, but also Melgarejo, who was not very good at receiving serves, maintained a serve reception success rate of over 40% and did not concede any points.
Libero Pesaresi, who was somewhat noticeable in directly conceding goals during the regular season, covered for Melgarejo and only conceded one goal, preventing Perugia from getting on a roll.
The mid-range players were able to deal with the short serves well, so I think Perugia was forced to take more risks with their serves.
In terms of floor defense, the relationship between blocking and receiving was well done, which resulted in a lot of digging, including by the middle players.
Even when the first pass was messed up, such as a block touch, his reaction to the second pass was incredible, and I could sense his determination to keep going.
This type of play continued to put pressure on Perugia, and it is likely that this was one of the reasons why Perugia's attack errors increased with each set.
Additionally, attacks that incorporated rebounds, taking advantage of this high level of floor coverage, were also very effective.
Originally it was a play that was synonymous with Ishikawa, but now it has become a play that is synonymous with Milan, and both Melgarejo and Patri actively incorporated rebounds in difficult situations.
In particular, in the fourth set, their attack success rate was 34%, 13% lower than Perugia's, but their effectiveness rate ((goals scored - goals conceded)/number of attempts) was one point higher, indicating that the team as a whole was good at managing their attacks and conceded goals.
This strong team defense allowed them to keep rallies going in situations where other teams would have conceded points, and many of those balls were Milan's key points.
With regards to these defensive elements, I think the key was the greatly improved and consistent performance of Melgarejo and Pesaresi, especially during the playoffs.
In particular, the fifth game was a culmination of their efforts, and there were many great plays that did not show up in the numbers (the fifth point in the second set, when Melgarejo connected with Ishikawa to score with a difficult high ball, was absolutely amazing).
② Setter Porro
Personally, I would like to give this player the MVP award as well.
First of all, it was his serve that put an end to the Peru-ja mood that had been going on until the beginning of the second set.
Without that play, I think it would not have been surprising if Milan had been swallowed up and lost in straight sets, just like the first game.
It was probably a game where Porro made the breakthrough and Ishikawa scored.
I also think the assembly afterwards was excellent.
His use of the middle and pipe attacks was excellent on this day as well, demonstrating his high decisiveness.
Another thing I would like to personally praise is how Patrie is used.
Although Patry was not in such good form compared to the fourth match last week, it looked like they were giving him sets that allowed him to spike in a relatively good condition, and even if he conceded a point, they gave him another chance to score right away so that he wouldn't let the mistake dwell on it.
As a result, I think Patrie himself did not lose his form too much during the match, and was able to score even in a somewhat difficult situation in the fourth set.
As seen in getting Ishikawa to hit towards the end of the set, he also looked closely at not only the opponent's situation but also the condition of his teammates' attackers and seemed to be making the best decisions for the team.
3) Perugia's mental health problems
I think Perugia clearly had some mental problems.
As Perugia manager Anastasi said after the match, "I was nervous," and although they had only lost one game all season since losing to Milan in the second leg of the quarter-finals, they had suffered four losses, including in the Champions League, in the 20 days leading up to that point.
In particular, they had not been able to recover mentally well from the UEFA Champions League semi-final that took place four days prior to this match, when they suffered their first defeat at home to Perugia and were eliminated from the Champions League.
There were a lot of spike errors, especially at crucial moments, and when Milan scored their 20th point in the fourth set, they were unable to pick up the balls they should have.
The fact that Perugia were unable to score serve aces as they did in the regular season may have been due to Milan's strong defense, but I also think that Perugia's mentality was a big factor.
To be honest, after Perugia comfortably won the first leg of the quarterfinals against Milan 3-0, many volleyball fans, and probably the Perugia team as well, were probably imagining a future in which they could win three games in a row, advance to the semifinals, and even make it to the Champions League final with plenty of time in the schedule.
To be honest, I thought that would happen too.
However, reality is surprisingly fragile once it collapses.
Perugia has won 39 and lost 6 of 45 games this season.
However, these six losses meant they missed out on important titles, including the Coppa Italia, the European Champions League and the Italian League.
In this case, it may be that it is important to lose even when it is okay to do so.
The cheers from Perugia fans during the match and the booing when Milan served were incredible, but the atmosphere after the loss was also incredible.
While some supporters applauded their losing team, many fans booed the Perugia players, and some even yelled abusive language at them (which caused Semeniuk to turn red in the face and lose his temper).
It is true that until halfway through the season they were the overwhelmingly strongest team, and it seemed like there was no room for debate that they were destined to win the Champions League and Italian League, so the disappointment and feelings of betrayal from fans who then lost the chance to win two titles at the same time in just five days is immeasurable.
However, they still have the fifth place match coming up, so I hope they don't get discouraged and will show us the strong Perugia side once again.
Meanwhile, Milan was in a real festive mood.
After scoring match point, Ishikawa ran around the court like a high school student and gave warm embraces to the staff at each end of the court.
Late announcement but Milan won!!! Amazing!!! pic.twitter.com/29rmFhE687
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) April 10, 2023
However, when it comes to interviews, I always respond calmly (laughs).
But he still looked brighter than usual.
But I still feel like there is a wall to overcome.
In fact, I find it easier to approach Ebadipoule, Pollo and Rosell, even though I don't exchange many words with them (laughs).
But I hope that one day I will be able to exchange words that make me feel like, "Ah, I've been able to break down a wall a little."
Until then, I would like to observe the evolution of this samurai.
Now, our next opponent is Roubaix.
Like Milan, this is a team with momentum, having come back from two straight losses to win three straight games in the semi-finals against Verona.
Milan has a record of success once before, in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals at the end of last year, but their formation at Roubaix has changed significantly since then, so it's impossible to say how the match will turn out.
The first race will be held at home in Roubaix, and Milan has a shorter time until the race, so I think they will be at a considerable disadvantage in terms of recovery, but I hope they will use the same momentum they gained from beating the strongest Perugia to defeat Roubaix and continue on to the final.
Well, now that it's come to this, I don't really feel like going.
Looking forward to the final against Piacenza, a non-BIG4 team!!!
Photo: PowervolleyMilano
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