In the first match of the third-place playoff match of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Yuki Ishikawa's Milan team faced Trentino on Wednesday, April 17th (local time) and lost 2-3 (25-23, 18-25, 25-23, 19-25, 11-15).
Ishikawa had a great game, scoring 20 points.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ishikawa
MB: Vitelli (Italy), Rosell (Argentina)
OP: Regels (Belgium)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Catania (Italy)
Trentino
OH: Micheletto (Italy), Magarini (Italy)
MB: Kozamelnik (Slovenia), Podrascanin (Serbia)
OP: Lihiritzki (Luxembourg)
S: Acquarone (Italy)
L: Laurenzano (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
MVP: OP Kamil Lichlicki
21 points (4 from blocks)
Attack Effectiveness Rate 36.67%
OH Ishikawa Yuki
20 points (3 serves, 2 blocks)
Attack effectiveness rate 18.92%
This brings Milan's record to 0 wins and 1 loss in the third-place match.
The second leg of the playoff third place match will be held at Milan's home ground at 27:30 on Saturday, April 20th (Japan time).
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
Comments from Yuki Ishikawa after the match
Toshiki's comment
I went to the venue for this match.
The Trento venue was packed with spectators during the semi-finals, but the attendance was somewhat lower for the first match of the third-place playoff.
Milan's Kaziyski and Trentino's Italian national team player OH Ravia were both absent due to injuries, so both teams started with different starting lineups than in the semi-final.
In the first set, OH Magarini, who replaced Ravia, showed his presence and Trentino took the lead in the early stages. However, Milan made a comeback in the final stages with Ishikawa's blocks and service aces, and finally OH Melgarejo, who replaced Kaziyski, scored a spike to give Milan a 25-23 lead in the first set.
In the second set, OH Micheletto made a lot of attacks and Trentino won by a large margin of 18-25, and in the third set, Trentino continued his momentum and took a large lead of 1-6.
However, with service aces from Porro and Ishikawa, the score was tied at 13-13 in the middle of the game, and the match became as close as the first set.However, a block by substitute captain MB Piano proved to be the deciding factor, and Milano took the set 25-23.
In the fourth set, both teams made mistakes but the score was 15-15 until the middle of the match. However, after Magarini's service ace put Tolentino ahead at 15-18, he continued to score with consecutive spikes from Micheletto and took the set at 19-25, and the match went to deuce.
(However, in this set, the referee made some questionable decisions and all of them went to Trentino, which made me feel a bit frustrated.)
In the fifth set, thanks to the efforts of Lihiricki and Micheletto, Trentino took an early lead of 2-5, but Milan quickly caught up at 5-5 with an attack from Melgarejo and a service ace from Rosell.
However, consecutive spikes from Micheletto and an attack error from Ishikawa gave Trentino a three-point lead again at 8-11, and finally Magarini scored consecutive spikes to make it 11-15.
Trentino won a close match.
As Ishikawa said after the match, I think the difference on this day was the blocks. Looking at the numbers, Milan's block points were 7 points, while Trentino's were 16 points, more than double. In particular, the opposite player, Regels, was blocked 8 times, which I think was a tough one for Milan.
Especially in the playoffs, Milan had a tendency to win if Regers was in good form, so I think Trentino's strategy of effectively suppressing that was a success.
However, Milano was able to attack well in terms of serves, and Ishikawa and Rosell in particular were very active, with three service aces each. However, as has been the case since the regular season, it is difficult for Milano to translate their performance into victory...
Trentino is the only team Milan has not won a single game against this season.
However, they will be hoping to somehow grab a win in their next home game and get a boost in their bid to qualify for the Champions League.
The key to this is probably Kaziyski. Although he was on the bench due to injury, he never took to the court in this match, but I hope he will awaken in the match against Emperor Kazi's former team.
Photo: Legavolleyball, Author's photo
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