In the first match of the second half of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Milan, where Ishikawa Yuki plays and is currently in 7th place in the league, played away against Cisterna, who is in 8th place, on Saturday, December 17th (local time) and lost 1-3 (21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 20-25).
Yuki Ishikawa started in this match and scored 15 points, second highest on the team.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Ishikawa, Ebadipour (Iran)
MB: Vitelli (Italy), Rosell (Argentina)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Cisterna
OH: Sedlacek (Croatia), Bayram (Türkiye)
MB: Dzingel (Australia), Rossi (Italy)
OP: Jirlic (Croatia)
S: Baranovich (Italy)
L: Catania (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
In the first set, Cisterna got a touch on the block early on and OP Zirlic scored a counter attack to take a 1-4 lead.
Milan also caught up with the score at 13-13 thanks to spikes from OH Ishikawa and OP Patri, as well as consecutive mistakes from opponent OH Sedlacek, and from there it became a seesaw game.
However, Cisterna got aces from OH Bayram and reliever OH Gutierrez to take a lead of 18-21 in the final stages, and then Milan OP Patri and OH Ebadipoour were both caught by Cisterna's blocks, giving Cisterna the set point at 20-24.
In the end, MB Rossi's quick shot was successful and Cisterna took the first set 21-25.
In the second set, Milan started by switching the positions of OH Ishikawa and OH Ebadipoul.
In the early stages, both players traded shots, but Cisterna made a series of mistakes and Milano took the lead 12-9.
Milano further extended their lead to 18-11 with three consecutive breaks, including a service ace from MB Rosell and a back attack from S. Pollo.
After that, OH Gutierrez (Cuba), who replaced OH Bayram, made a high spike and S Baranovic's service ace helped Cisterna close the gap to three points at 22-19.
However, substitute MB Piano blocked OP Jirlic to put Milano on set at 24-19, and then the opponent made a serve error, allowing Milano to take the set back at 25-20.
In the third set, Cisterna started with OH Gutierrez.
The set began with OH Sedlacek blocking OP Patry and Milano missing an attack, so Cisterna was leading 3-7.
However, OH Ishikawa continued to break OH Gutierrez's serve, and with his own aces and blocks from MB Rosell, he broke four in a row to turn the game around to 10-9.
Cisterna replaced OH Gutierrez with OH Caliverda (Germany) to stabilize their passing, and from then on the team focused on side attacks and both teams traded side outs.
However, Cisterna managed to break through the persistent defense with a spike from OH Caliberda and a block from OP Jirlic to take a 19-21 lead.
In the final minutes, Milano managed to tie the score at 23-23 with a last-minute pass from OP Patri and OH Ishikawa, but OH Caliberda scored a counter attack to give Cisterna a close third set victory at 23-25.
In the fourth set, Cisterna continued to use OH Caliberda from the start.
Right from the start, Cisterna immediately took a break with a service ace from OH Caliberda, but then OH Ebadipour and OP Patri were blocked in succession, and Milan struggled with side outs, giving Cisterna a big lead of 2-8.
Milan brought on OH Melgarejo and MB Piano, and with OH Ishikawa's spikes they were able to get good side outs, but Cisterna also scored solid points with spikes from OP Jirlic and OH Caliberda, preventing Milan from breaking through, and the game went into the middle of the game without being able to close the gap at 8-14.
After that, Milano finally started to get into good form, scoring consecutive breaks with service aces and attacks, closing the gap to 2 points at 15-17, but Milano struggled with the varied serves of OH Gutierrez, who came in as relief server immediately after, and three consecutive breaks, including an ace, allowed Milano to fall behind again at 15-21.
Milan's OH Ishikawa's spike put them at 18-23, and when he went back to serve, he continued to serve with his ace-level mighty serves into the opponent's court, taking two breaks to 20-23, but that was the end of their counterattack.
OP Jirlic skillfully converted the high set into points, putting Cisterna on match point at 20-24, but in the end OH Ebadipoul's spike went out, and Cisterna took the set 20-25 and won 1-3 against Milan.
MVP: OP Petar Zirlic (30 points (8 blocks), attack success rate 471 TP 3T)
Ishikawa scored 15 points (1 on serve and 1 on block), with an attack success rate of 431 TP and 3 T, and a serve receive success rate of 29% (2 points conceded).
Milan is now in provisional 8th place with a total of 6 wins, 6 losses and 17 points.
Next week, after Christmas, they will play against 9th-placed Monza at home on Monday, December 26th at 18:00 local time (2:00 the next day Japan time).
The report for the first half is here:
Thoughts etc.
On this day, we were there to watch and report on the event!
First, on the morning of the day of the match, I will fly from Warsaw Chopin Airport to Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport on the low-cost carrier Wizz Air, departing at 6:15am.
However, after boarding the plane, there was no sign of it departing, so I wondered what was going on.It turned out that someone on board was feeling unwell and the flight was being delayed to treat that person.
In the end, the plane managed to take off, more than an hour later than scheduled.
By the way, this was my sixth time using Wizz Air this year, but I experienced four delays (three of which were more than five hours long). Furthermore, when I took the flight to watch an Ishikawa game, the delay rate was 100% (lol).
I will try to avoid using Wizz Air when watching Milan games from now on.
However, this time I took an early morning flight in anticipation of this, so I arrived at Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport around 10am and took a bus from there to Rome Termini Station (6 euros one way, about an hour).
However, we still had some time so we took a short walk to the famous Colosseum.
It's about a 20-minute walk from Rome Termini Station to the Colosseum, so it's a good way to get some exercise and kill some time (lol).
It takes 30 minutes by local train from Rome Termini Station to our destination, Cisterna, and the fare is only 3 euros, which is convenient and reasonable.
There was a train to Cisterna about once an hour.
The station building at Cisterna Station is compact.
Furthermore, the venue is easily accessible, just under 10 minutes' walk from the station.
Considering that currently the only direct flight from Japan to Italy goes to Rome, Cisterna may be the most accessible volleyball venue from Japan.
However, there are very few places to sightsee or kill time in Cisterna itself, so we recommend that you tour Rome until the last minute.
Also, the gate into the venue looked like a factory gate (lol).
But there is a poster for today's match!!!
And the gym was just a normal gym.
The exterior is on par with a local community gymnasium in Japan.
The inside of the arena looks like this:
The seats were just concrete, so if you have weak hips, you might want to bring a cushion with you.
Although few in number, there were also Milan fans at the venue.
As per usual, the players completed their individual stretching and joint warm-up before moving on to some ball passing.
Ishikawa's opponent is Patry as usual.
The players then moved on to spike practice, and one player who stood out in particular was OH Gutierrez, a Cuban player from Cisterna.
He's about the same height as Ishikawa at 194cm, which is small for a volleyball player, but he was jumping so much that it made me wonder if he was jumping too much, and he was landing sharp spikes straight down (laughs).
I looked it up online and it said his highest height was 350cm, but from the looks of it, I think it's probably around 370cm.
He is 21 years old, the same age as Japan's Takahashi, and is a fearsome player who is likely to grow even more in the future.
And when I was practicing my serve, there was a huge traffic jam in front of my seat with all the Milan players (laughs).
While all this is going on, the match begins.
The Milan OH diagonal match on this day was Ishikawa vs. Ebadipoul, with Ishikawa playing in the second position, closer to the setter.
It seems that Piazza does not have a fixed lineup here, but rather flexibly adjusts it depending on the match.
We switched things up from the second set onwards.
However, as soon as the match started, I noticed the lack of awareness of the ball boys who were moving the balls around the court...
Around the fifth point into the game, they forgot to hand the ball to the serving player twice, which made even the spectators think, ``Come on.''
(And sure enough, after this they make a big mistake by putting the ball inside the court and interrupting the rally...)
Also, I think it's fine for the Cisterna supporters to boo-hoo when Milan serves, but at the same time they sound an air-raid siren every time, and I wish they'd stop that.
Well, that's how the match progressed, but it was a block festival for Cisterna.
In particular, Milan's OH Ebadipour and OP Patry were shut down a lot (Patry finally got on the ball around the middle of the fourth set, but it was too late).
In addition, Milan's serves from players other than Ishikawa were not working well, and Porro and Vitelli, who usually score at least one ace, did not score an ace this time (maybe because they both had their hair cut...(laughs)).
Even the ultimate weapon, OH Melgarejo, did not perform well this time...
Both Milan and Cisterna teams had good floor defense, so it was a tough match with many long rallies, but Cisterna was better in terms of blocking and serving.
OP Zilic, who won the MVP, S. Baranovic, who troubled Milan with his serves, and the skilled OH Caliberda were all impressive, but the player who caught my eye in the match was 21-year-old OH Gutierrez.
When he stepped onto the court in the middle of the second set, he was hitting most of his spikes from above the block, and although his blocks were high and he didn't win any points, he was able to get good touches and contribute to counter attacks.
However, in the third set he was forced to leave the game after being targeted by our own Mr. Ishikawa with a serve, but when he came on as the reliever server in the fourth set he showed his cunning by hitting a short serve when everyone was expecting a hard hit and getting an ace.
Moreover, from the second shot onwards, they start hitting hard and trying to break down the opponent.
No, no, Cuban players are still scary (laughs).
However, our Mr. Ishikawa really managed to stay strong even in such circumstances.
With the other two side attackers not performing well, he supported Milan's side-outs by attacking from the front and back.
His serving was good again that day, with four consecutive breaks in the third set and two consecutive breaks at the end of the fourth set with a spirited serve, giving Cisterna a hard time.
Personally, I think it was a mistake on the part of coach Piazza to have Ishikawa serve last in the fourth set.
Even when Cisterna had a big lead, his opponents were so wary that they called a timeout before Ishikawa's serve, so perhaps the order in the final set should have been decided so that Ishikawa would be the one to serve.
However, when you see Ishikawa in person, you will be captivated not only by his play but also by his passion and captaincy.
He yells when he scores, gets even happier when other players score, cheers on everyone whenever he gets the chance, and slams his feet on the floor when he's frustrated.
It's kind of moving to watch as well.
Especially his serve in the fourth set, when Cisterna was almost certain to win at 18-23 and the crowd was in an uproar.
Even though I thought to myself, "Show us the legend, Professor Ishikawa!", it was difficult to watch and I found it hard to look directly at the play.
Still, he served with all his might.
And they continued to break down their opponents without making any mistakes.
Even the serves in the rally in which Cisterna scored the 24th point were almost ace-level serves.
Cisterna, who scored after the toss, and OP Jillic were amazing.
But I was disappointed...
In reality, he is probably the most disappointed person, but as always, he answered questions after the game with a smile.
This brings my record of consecutive losses for Japanese teams during my on-site coverage in Italy to six, which came as a huge shock to me, but I will continue my coverage so that next time I can interview Ishikawa after a victory, and hopefully interview him as the MVP!!!
First of all, thanks to the players and staff of both Milan and Cisterna for their hard work.
thank you very much!!!
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A, author's photo
Here is an interview with Ishikawa from this match:
English 
Japanese