Yuki Ishikawa: "It was a lot of fun" - His 20 goals that led Perugia to the European Championship and his review of the season [Interview with the Champions League Volleyball Champion]

On Sunday, May 18th (local time), the final of the men's volleyball European Champions League was held in Lodz (Poland), where Yuki Ishikawa's team, Perugia (Italy), defeated Zawiercie (Poland) 3-2 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 15-10) to win their first championship. Ishikawa was included in the starting lineup as in the semi-finals, and contributed greatly to the team's victory with 20 points, the second highest on the team.

We spoke with Yuki Ishikawa after the victory ceremony.

Interview with Yuki Ishikawa

Reflecting on the match: "It was a lot of fun"

Toshiki: Congratulations on your victory. How do you feel now?

Ishikawa: I'm happy.

Toshiki: It was a long and tough full-set match, but how do you feel looking back on today's match?

Ishikawa: Yes, Xavierche had a very good defense, and even when we spiked, the ball would go up, so we had some difficulties. However, in the first and second sets, players like Ventala had a high success rate and their serves were good.

In the third and fourth sets, I think my spikes were coming in a little better than before, and my success rate went up. However, at the end of the fourth set, I made a small mistake and took a wasteful spike, so that's something I need to reflect on.

However, in the fifth set, I felt that I was able to contribute to the team with my spiking and especially my serve, so I think that can be evaluated positively.

TOSHIKI: In the fourth set, you lost in a frustrating manner due to your own attack mistakes, but despite that, you were smiling from the start of the fifth set, and it was impressive to see you enjoying yourself as if the last set of the fourth set had never happened. Were you able to completely switch your mindset between sets?

Ishikawa: In the fourth set, it was only the last two shots, so I think the rest of my play and spikes were very good. It was a crucial moment at the end, but I just made a mistake there, so it didn't really affect the fifth set, and I played normally without switching gears.

On the contrary, I had a lot of fun playing five sets. I think we played at a very high level, so I was enjoying being there and thinking about how we (Perugia) and Xavierche have been playing volleyball the longest this season.

TOSHIKI: As for the match, Zabierce lost two sets and then took back the other two, just like in the semi-finals yesterday. And in the fifth set, the local Polish fans were cheering and booing, and it felt like the whole stadium was hoping for Zabierce to make a comeback every day. Did the Perugia players sense that atmosphere too?

Ishikawa: I didn't really mind it, but after we won the second and third sets, I thought, "Oh, the momentum is on Xavierche's side, it's going to be the same as yesterday." However, that was within the range of expectation, and we weren't looking for it either, but we came here intending to play five sets, so it was as expected, and rather fun, we were waiting for this. So I think everyone played well in the fifth set.