In the 5th place deciding match of the Italian Men's Volleyball League Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Modena at home on Wednesday, April 19th local time, and won 3-2 (25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 26-28, 15-11).
Takahashi came on as a substitute in the second, third, and fourth sets and scored six points.
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)
Modena
OH: Rousseau (Belgium), Rinaldi (Italy)
MB: Sanguinetti (Italy), Bossi (Italy)
OP: Sara (Italy)
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 scored points mainly through De Smet and Modena through Rinaldi, and the match was close at 8-8.
After that, both teams continued to get breaks, but the score remained the same and the score continued to reach 14-14.
However, Padua managed to score three consecutive breaks with a service ace from Gardini and a pipe attack to take an 18-14 lead.
Modena also closed the gap to just one point at 19-18 with spikes from Sala and Bossi, but Padua pulled away again with an attack from Guardini to make it 23-20.
In the end, Guzzo's serve was practically an ace, and Padua took the set 25-21.
In the second set, Padua took the lead 6-4 early on with attacks and blocks from Gardini, but Modena quickly turned the tables with a 7-9 lead thanks to blocks from Rinaldi and spikes from Sala.
From there, the set continued to be a close battle with both sides breaking each other's serve just like the first set, but Padua took the lead 19-17 with some pipe attacks from De Smet.
However, consecutive mistakes from Padua allowed Modena to turn the game around to 19-20, and finally a spike from Salah gave Modena a break to take the set 22-25.
In the third set, Modena started off with a service ace from Rousseau, leading to a 0-3 lead, but then Padua made some attack mistakes and took the lead 8-7.
From there it was a close game again, but a Padua mistake and a block by Sangnetti gave Modena a two-point lead at 15-17.
However, when Padua brought in Takahashi (OH) and Asparuhov (OP (actually OH), Bulgaria), they scored points with Takahashi's spikes and Asparuhov's blocks, and managed to turn the game around again to 21-19.
Finally, Asparuhov scored a service ace to give Padua the set, 25-21.
In the fourth set, Asparuhov took to the court right from the start.
Modena took a 7-9 lead in the early stages, mainly thanks to Sala's spikes, but then Guardini made consecutive mistakes to widen the gap to 9-13.
Padua then brought on Takahashi again with the score at 15-17.
Then with a block from Guzzo and a spike and block from Takahashi, Padua tied the score at 22-22.
The match then went to deuce, but Padua made a series of mistakes at the end, and Modena took the set 26-28.
In the fifth set, Padua got off to a good start, breaking with a spike from Cannella and a block from Asparuhov to take a 5-2 lead, but Modena quickly caught up with consecutive service aces from Rinaldi to make it 5-5.
From there, Padua scored points with Asparuhov and De Smet, and Modena also added points with Sala and Bossi, and the set remained close at 11-11 as it neared the end.
However, Padova got the next side out with an Asparuhov spike to make the score 12-11, and then De Smet hit three consecutive aces to take the set at 15-11, giving Padova a 3-2 victory.
MVP: OH Mathis De Smet (19 points (3 serves, 1 block), 47% attack success rate, 48% serve reception success rate)
Takahashi Ai scored 6 points (including 1 block), with an attack success rate of 83% and a serve receive success rate of 25%.
With this, Padova's record in the 5th place match is 1 win, 1 loss and 2 points, putting them in 3rd place out of 5 teams (teams ranked 4th or higher will advance to the tournament).
The team's next game will be against Monza away on Saturday, April 22nd at 7:30pm local time (2:30am the next day Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
Padua beat Modena in style!
First win since the opening game of the season!
However, Modena had half of their starting lineup, including OH Ngape, OP Laguna Musia and MB Stankovic, on the bench during the match, so it is true that the team's strength was significantly reduced.
However, Padova did not include Takahashi in the starting lineup, and OP Petkovic is no longer on the team, so I think it's fair to say they did well under those circumstances.
De Smet, who also won the MVP award, was especially energetic, and his three consecutive service aces in the fifth set were so amazing it was as if he had been possessed by the likes of Nishida Yuji of some time ago, and it made me laugh (laughs).
Their pipe attacks were effective and their serve reception was quite stable.
Asparuhov, who was playing opposite instead of his usual position, also scored one dynamic spike after another, which was great to watch.
Perhaps Asparuhov is better suited to playing opposite rather than on the side.
As is the case with Civitanova's Nikolov, I wonder if Bulgaria has a lot of opposite outside players who are not good at receiving serves (lol).
Of course, Takahashi also left an outstanding presence despite his short playing time.
In the third set, after making a substitution, he immediately made a diving play to score the second point, and his attack success rate was an astonishing 83%, showing that he was not only able to switch gears from the difficult match against Verona, but also far surpassed that performance.
Come to think of it, Takahashi was in top form in both games against Modena during the regular season.
Maybe they are a good match.
If that's the case, why didn't they put him in the starting lineup and instead reverted to the lineup used in the 5th place qualifying match?
Since the first match was played with the regular season starting lineup, except for Petkovic, who is no longer on the team, it is unclear what stance Coach Cuttini will take going into this tournament...
On the other hand, Modena used the same players as they did on this day in their first match against Monza, so it seems they are determined to do as much as they can without using players like Engape or La Mugia.
However, for now they will be rested for these two games, and the remaining two games will be against strong opponents, Perugia and Verona, so they may go in with their full team.
In any case, there are only a few more opportunities left to see Takahashi Ai in a Padua uniform.
Let's burn this image into our minds.
Photo: PallavoloPadova
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