In the 4th round of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Monza, the team that Takahashi Ai plays for, played against Trentino on Sunday, November 19th (local time) and lost 1-3 (25-19, 22-25, 23-25, 23-25). Takahashi Ai played as a starter and scored 11 points.
First set starting lineup
Monza
OH: Ma (Canada), Takahashi
MB: Galassi (Italy), Di Martino (Italy)
OP: Schwartz (Canada)
S: Fernando (Brazil)
L: Gaggini (Italy)
Trentino
OH: Micheletto (Italy), Lavia (Italy)
MB: Kozamelnik (Slovenia), Podrascanin (Serbia)
OP: Lihiritzki (Luxembourg)
S: Sbertori (Italy)
L: Laurenzano (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Match Report
In the first set, Monza took the lead 7-4 early on with spikes from OH Marr and OP Schwartz. Monza continued to maintain the lead, making it 17-14, and then OH Marr's spike on a turnaround from OH Takahashi's serve widened the gap to 20-14. Finally, OH Marr's pipe attack was successful, and Monza took the set 25-19.
In the second set, Trentino took the lead 5-7 from the beginning with OH Micheletto's spikes. Monza also scored with OP Schwartz's spikes, but Trentino widened the gap to 11-16 with OP Lihilicki's spikes and service aces. In the final stages, Monza scored consecutive points with OP Lepki's spikes to close the gap to 21-23, but in the end, OP Lepki's serve was a mistake and Trentino took the set 22-25.
In the third set, Monza took a 9-6 lead early on with spikes and blocks from MB Galassi and OH Marr. However, Trentino made four consecutive breaks with a service ace from OH Lavia and a spike from OH Micheletto, and quickly turned the game around to 10-12. From there, Trentino extended his lead to 15-19 with OP Schwartz receiving a red card for a failed challenge during a rally and a reaction to the decision. In the final stages, Monza closed the gap to 20-21 with a block from OP Schwartz, but in the end, OH Micheletto's spike was successful and Trentino took the set 23-25.
In the fourth set, Monza started off with a 4-1 lead thanks to a block from MB Galassi. However, Trentino tied the score at 8-8 with a service ace from S. Sbertoli, and then scored consecutive points with a block from MB Podrascanin to turn the game around to 13-15. In the final stages, Monza tied the score at 21-21 with a spike from OH Takahashi, but in the end, Trentino won the set with a 23-25 lead thanks to a spike from OH Micheletto.
As a result, Monza lost to Trentino 1-3.
MVP: OH Kamil Lichlicki, 23 points (1 serve, 1 block), attack efficiency rate 65.52%
Takahashi Ai scored 11 points with an attack efficiency rate of 47.62%.
Monza now sits in provisional fourth place with a total record of four wins, two losses and 12 points.
Their next match will be against Piacenza, who are in third place, on Monday, November 27th at 2:00am Japan time.
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
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Toshiki's Tweets
Unfortunately, they lost to Trentino.
In the first set, Monza's serve worked well and they succeeded in suppressing the opponent's attack success rate, but from the second set onwards, they were pushed back by the opponent's serve and were unable to stop the spikes of OP Lihilicki and OH Micheletto, which made for a difficult game. However, from the second set onwards, every set was close, so I think the difference was really small.
Takahashi's contributions in this match were also excellent in terms of receiving, attacking and serving. Although he didn't serve any aces, he earned a considerable number of breaks, including some that were practically aces, and his attack rate was high. His serve reception success rate was 73%, with zero lost points, and his digs, including one-handed digs, led the team. His two consecutive one-handed digs in one rally in the middle of the first set were incredible. However, he was not very effective in blocking in this match, and was unable to put pressure on his opponent, OP Lihiritsuki, who was doing whatever he wanted.
In this match, Monza, as a team, moved their blocks to the opponent's left side as a whole, so-called dedicated shift. It is true that in this season, the most dangerous players for Trentino are Micheletto and Lavia on the outside, and Lihiricki on the opposite side makes more mistakes than them, and does not attack very quickly, so I think Monza's tactics this time made sense. However, on this day Lihiricki made more hits than expected, and Monza was unable to respond.
Monza's substitute Lepke looked good, so I think it would have been better to bring him in earlier than the fourth set. Moreover, instead of playing opposite, I think it would have been better to try him as a replacement for Takahashi with the intention of strengthening the right-side block. However, Takahashi was not bad in this match, so it would have been difficult to make a substitution in such a situation.
However, although Monza lost, I think the content was not bad at all, just like the loss to Perugia. It was a very small margin. It is expected that the next match against Piacenza will be a close one, so I hope they can grab the points they missed in this match and win.
But before that, we have the CEV Challenge Cup this week! Well, we'll be playing against lower-ranked teams, so it shouldn't be a problem. Either way, I'm looking forward to it!
Photo: legavolley.it
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