In the 7th round of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Monza, where Takahashi Ai plays, played against Piacenza on Sunday, November 26th (local time) and won 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-20, 15-12). Takahashi Ai started the game and scored 17 points.
First set starting lineup
Monza
OH: Ma (Canada), Takahashi
MB: Galassi (Italy), Di Martino (Italy)
OP: Lepki (Canada)
S: Fernando (Brazil)
L: Gaggini (Italy)
Piacenza
OH: Lucarelli (Brazil), Real (Brazil)
MB: Ricci (Italy), Simon (Cuba)
OP: Gironi (Italy)
S: Brisard (France)
L: Scanfera (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Match Report
In the first set, Monza scored points mainly from OP Lepki's spikes, but Piacenza also scored points from OH Real's spikes, and the match continued to be close at 7-7. However, Piacenza scored consecutive points from S Brizard and OH Lucarelli's spikes to take a 10-13 lead. Monza then tied the score at 18-18 with a block from OP Lepki, but in the end, Piacenza won the set with a spike from OH Lucarelli to make it 22-25.
In the second set, Monza took a 7-3 lead after breaking the ball early on with two service aces from MB Galassi. Both teams traded breaks from there, but Monza maintained a 16-12 lead with pipe attacks from OH Takahashi. Piacenza made it 20-17 with spikes and service aces from MB Simon, but could not catch up any further. In the end, OP Gironi's serve was a mistake, and Monza took the set 25-21.
In the third set, Piacenza took a 1-4 lead early on with a break from MB Simon's spike, and then in the middle of the set, they broke with a spike from OH Lucarelli and a block from OH Real, widening the gap to 8-12. Monza then closed the gap to 18-19 with a service ace from OH Marr and a block from OP Schwartz, who came in as a substitute. However, Piacenza made four consecutive breaks from Monza's spike and a service ace from OH Lucarelli to make it 18-24, and finally OH Real scored a spike to take the set 19-25.
In the fourth set, Monza took the lead 4-1 with spikes from OP Repke and a service ace from OH Marr. After that, Piacenza turned the game around to 6-7 with a block from MB Ricci (Italy), who entered the game as a substitute, but Monza turned the game around again to 11-9 with a service ace from OH Repke. Monza then scored consecutive points with a receiving ace from OH Marr and a block from MB Di Martino to make it 16-13, and in the final stages, OH Repke scored consecutive points to make it 21-15, widening the gap. Finally, OH Takahashi scored a sharp spike from the left to take the set 25-20.
In the fifth set, Monza took the lead 3-1 with OH Lepki's blocks and spikes from the beginning, and continued to score with OH Takahashi's spikes and OH Marr's blocks to maintain a 9-6 lead. From there, Piacenza made a series of mistakes in Monza's side-out scenes, and at the end, OP Gironi's serve was a mistake, and Monza took the set 15-12.
Monza won the match against Piacenza 3-2.
MVP: OH/OP Eric Lepke, 21 points (1 serve, 3 blocks), attack efficiency rate 44.83%
Takahashi Ai scored 17 points (including 1 block) with an attack efficiency rate of 32.26%.
This puts Monza in third place with a total record of 5 wins, 2 losses and 14 points.
Their next match will be against Milan, who are in 7th place and are played by Yuki Ishikawa, at 4:00am Japan time on Tuesday, December 5th.
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
Toshiki's Tweets
Victory over the powerful Piacenza!
The team won despite having completed a full set of matches in Lisbon on Thursday, being delayed by a day in returning home due to a problem, and several players on the team still feeling unwell after contracting COVID-19.
In this game, outside hitter Lepke started as the opposite hitter in place of Schwartz (probably one of the players who was in poor condition), who had been playing as the opposite hitter in the starting lineup up until that point. Lepke did his best and scored the most points with 21 points. He's really a professional outside hitter, isn't he? (laughs)
Takahashi also contributed to the victory with 17 points, third on the team. Compared to his usual performance, he conceded a few more spikes (it was especially painful that his specialty, the pipe attack, was suppressed), but he was outstanding on both offense and defense in this game. His super-reactive one-handed digs were as brutal as ever. His fake sets were still going strong. There was also a back attack from Wright. However, according to an interview with Monza's sports director, Takahashi was not in perfect physical condition either, so it was impressive that he was able to perform so well under those circumstances.
While Monza had some players who were not feeling well, Piacenza was also without their regular opposite Romano. Gironi was on the bench, but his performance was not stable. Because of this, Monza's blockers were shifted to the left overall, which made it easier to defend. Well, even in that situation, Simon in the middle was able to score a lot of goals...
In addition, Piacenza's regular setter Brizard also left the game in the middle of the 5th set. He was holding his hip, so I think it was probably some kind of back pain, but this put Piacenza in a pinch.
Monza is very strong. However, there are two games this week, including the CEV Cup, so I am worried about their condition.
Speaking of which, on the 27th, a report was released saying that Takahashi will need 8 to 10 days of recuperation due to his injury... It seems unlikely that he will be able to play in the next two matches, including the Japanese showdown with Milan. After all, his amount of exercise during the match is incomparable to other players. I hope he gets a good recovery.
It will be tough for the other members as well, but since we won the CEV Cup match in Portugal in full sets, we would like to somehow win the home match 3-0.
After that, he will face Milan's Yuki Ishikawa. Last season, Takahashi's team, Padova, lost both games, so he would have wanted to win this season, but it looks like their on-court showdown will have to wait until the second half of the season.
Photo: legavolley.it
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