On Friday, December 20th (local time), in the third group match of the World Club Championship, Conegliano (Italy), where Seki Nanami plays, faced off against the NEC Red Rockets. This was a showdown between an overseas team with Japanese players and a Japanese SV League club.
In the first set, NEC scored points mainly from MB Shimamura and MB Yamada's quick plays, and the match was evenly matched until the middle of the game. However, Conegliano made good use of OP Haak's height to spike, and also struggled with blocks to win the set 25-21.
In the second and third sets, NEC fought back with OH Sato and OH Conyot taking advantage of the opponent's blocks and aiming for the course well. However, Conegliano showed their undefeated team strength this season, including the Italian league, with high spikes mainly from OH Ju and OH Gabi, service aces from OP Haak, and blocks including MB Farr, winning the set 25-20, 25-19 and winning 3-0.
NEC's MB Shimamura recorded an attack success rate of 501 TP 3 T, and their attacks from the middle were well-settled, but their attacks from the sides were not as good as they had hoped. It was unfortunate that OP Da Silva was particularly poor, and their side attacks were biased towards the left.
Nevertheless, OH Sato showed a great performance, especially in the second set, spiking well while dealing with high blocks from both the front and back and achieving a high efficiency rate.
In order for NEC to put up a good fight they wanted to serve effectively, but it was very tough as they were unable to make any major impact, even with OH Ju, who is not good at receiving serves.
Seki from Conegliano played as a relief server in the first set of the match and as a substitute in the second set. I wonder what it felt like to play against a Japanese team as a member of an overseas team.
Conegliano was astonishing. Of course, the level of height and power is different from the SV League, and I think that this season's team is at a level where most national teams from each country cannot beat them. It is no exaggeration to say that they are almost the world's selection.
Looking back at Suntory, who put up a good fight against HalkBank Ankara (Turkey) at last year's World Club Championships, it seemed to me that the barrier between the women's team and the rest of the world was even bigger than that of the Japanese men's team.
Following this defeat, NEC has been eliminated from the group stage, but I believe the players gained something very big from this tournament, so I hope they will use this disappointment as a springboard to do their best.
Conegliano advanced to the semi-finals and will face Milan (Italy), where Keimi Fukudome plays. This will be the third match this season and the sixth this year.
Conegliano - NEC
3-0(25-21, 25-20, 25-19)
Conegliano
Starting lineup: S. Vołosz (3), OH. Gabi (10), MB. Farr (8), OP. Haak (17), OH. Ju (12), MB. Rubien (8), L. De Gennaro
Substitutes: S. Seki, OP Adigwe (2), OH Ukashik (1)
NEC
Starting lineup: S Nakagawa (), OH Sato (12), MB Yamada (7), OP Da Silva (4), OH Konyot (12), MB Shimamura (10), L Daikuen
Substitutes: S Tsukada, OH Hirota, OH Yamauchi, OH Sasaki
Detailed match stats here:
https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/club-world-championship-women/schedule/21379/
Club World Championship Semi-finals
Conegliano - Milan
Japan time: Saturday, December 21st, 20:30~
Distribution: VBTV
Photo: volleyballworld.com
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