In the 5th place deciding match of the Italian Men's Volleyball League Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Verona away on Saturday, April 15th local time and lost 0-3 (17-25, 11-25, 23-25).
Takahashi appeared in the starting lineup for the first time since the regular season and scored a team-high nine points.
First set starting lineup
Padua
OH: Gardini (Italy), Takahashi (Japan)
MB: Canella (Italy), Volpato (Italy)
OP: Guzzo (Italy)
S: Saitta (Italy)
L: Zenger (Germany)
Verona
OH: Keita (Mali), Mojic (Slovenia)
MB: Cortesia (Italy), Grozdanov (Bulgaria)
OP: Saposhkov (Russia)
S: Spirito (Italy)
L: Gaggini (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, Verona took the lead 3-5 early on with a spike from Mozic and a service ace from Spirito.
Verona then scored four consecutive breaks from Grozdanov's serve, including an attack from Keita, to extend their lead to 6-11.
Padua also scored with spikes from Guardini and Takahashi, but Verona continued to score breaks with blocks from Cortesia and two attacks from Spirito, making the score 12-19.
In the end, setter Spirito scored two attacks and Verona took the set 17-25.
In the second set, Padua continued to use Zoppellari (S, Italy) and Crosato (MB, Italy), who had been using them since the middle of the first set.
In the early stages, Padua hung on to Verona at 7-8, but then Verona broke three times with spikes from Keita and Saposchkov's serve to take the lead at 7-12.
Furthermore, with three service aces from Keita's serve and a spike from Saposchkov, Verona made eight consecutive breaks in one go, putting them at 8-21 ahead of Padova.
Mozic continued to make consecutive blocks and spikes in the final seconds, and Verona took the set 11-25.
In the third set, Verona started off leading 1-4 with a block from Grozdanov and a spike from Saposhkov, but Padova turned the game around with a block from Guzzo and a spike from substitute De Smet (OH, Belgium) to take a 5-4 lead.
From there, both teams took breaks and the game was a close one, with Padova scoring points mainly through spikes from Takahashi and substitute Asparuhov (OP (originally OH), Bulgaria), and Verona scoring points through spikes from Keita and Saposhkov, leading to a score of 18-18.
Mozic's attack resulted in a successful break, putting Verona ahead by two points at 18-20, but in the final minutes, Guardini, who had replaced Takahashi, scored a service ace to tie the score at 23-23 for Padua.
However, after that, Gardini made a serve error, and finally Mozic jumped in to pass the ball to Keita, who scored to take the set 23-25 for Verona.
As a result, Padova lost to Verona 0-3.
MVP: L. Marco Gaggini
Takahashi Ai led the team with 9 points (including 2 blocks), with an attack success rate of 30% and a serve receive success rate of 33%.
The team's next match will be against Modena at home on Wednesday, April 19th at 8:30pm local time (3:30am Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
First of all, I was relieved to see Takahashi back in the starting lineup (laughs).
The third set was a close one, but the first and second sets were a sloppy affair reminiscent of the match between these two teams earlier in the regular season.
Takahashi, who was in the starting lineup for the first time in a while, was also lackluster, scoring in single digits and allowing six blocks (on the other hand, he was stable, only conceding one point on serve reception).
As for the team as a whole, after the end of the regular season, the physical and mental condition of Padova, who played a relaxed game against other teams without a full roster in the 5th place qualifying match, and Verona, who played a fierce game in the playoff quarter-finals until the 5th game against Civitanova, was completely different.
I think it took Padua two sets to close that gap.
The playing environment was too different.
Also, Takahashi simply hadn't played in any matches, so his sense of the game may have become dull.
I think the same goes for starting setter Saitta, who was quickly replaced by Zoppelari.
But I guess it's good enough that we were able to step up a gear in the third set.
At the end, it looked like Gardini just needed one more serve to win, but it was a close call...
It will be very difficult for Padua to win this fifth place match.
However, from now on, the trial period is over and I think Padova, including Takahashi, will go all out, so I would like to watch them perform well until the end of the season.
Photo: VeronaVolley
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