In the third round of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Cisterna away on October 16th local time and lost 3-1 (25-19, 31-33, 25-20, 25-15), bringing their two-game winning streak since the start of the season to an end.
Takahashi was selected to start the match as well, but struggled with his spikes and was unable to score.
Starting lineup for the first set
Padua
OH: Takahashi, Asparuhov (Bulgaria)
MB: Canella, Crosart
OP: Petkovic (Serbia)
S: Saitta
L: Zenger (Germany)
Cisterna
OH: Sedlacek (Croatia), Bayram (Türkiye)
MB: Dzingel (Austria), Rossi
OP: Jirlic (Croatia)
S: Baranovich
L: Catania
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
In the first set, Cisterna started off with aces from OH Byram and spikes from Sedlacek, breaking the serve and widening the lead to 9-5.
On the other hand, Padua struggled to land a single spike from anyone other than OP Petkovic, and there were many instances where Cisterna's blocks and receives were superior.
The same thing applied to Takahashi, who struggled to score a spike.
The gap widened to a maximum of seven points at 16-9, but MB's Crossart's consecutive aces helped Cisterna narrow the gap slightly, but OP Jirlic's spikes were landing with ease.
Padua tried to recover by replacing OH Asparhof with De Smet (Belgium), Takahashi with Gardini, and setter Saitta with Zoppelari, but it was unsuccessful.
In the end, Dzingel's quick shot was successful and Cisterna took the first set 25-19.
In the second set, Padua started with OH with Takahashi and De Smet.
From the start, Takahashi was caught in the opponent's block, but from there Padova scored points mainly through OP Petkovic and Cisterna scored points mainly through OH Bayram, and the game was a back-and-forth battle with the score never being more than two points apart.
Cisterna was first to get to set point at 24-23, but Padua held on with a block and the game went into a long deuce.
However, Padua managed to turn the game around thanks to a touch of the net and a spike error from Cisterna, and finally De Smet scored a spike and serve in succession to take the intense set at 31-33.
In the third set, Padua replaced Takahashi with Guardini, who had come on in the middle of the second set.
However, Gardini was defeated by the opponent's serve, allowing Cisterna to extend his lead to 8-3.
Padua brought Takahashi back to try and recover from the receiving, and with Takahashi's pipe attack and consecutive service aces from De Smet, they closed the gap to just two points at 12-10. However, after that, Padua struggled to get their attacks going and even made mistakes, unable to get into a rhythm.
Meanwhile, Cisterna continued to rally and break serve with spikes from Jiric and Sedlacek, taking a large lead of 24-18 and reaching set point.
Takahashi then scored a service ace to get revenge, but in the end Sedlacek's spike made it 25-19, putting Cisterna in checkmate.
Cisterna's momentum continued in the fourth set.
Padua tried to regain momentum by using a new combination of Asparuhov and De Smet for the OH, but they made a series of mistakes early on and Cisterna took a big lead of 9-5.
After that, Padova tried to turn the situation around by passing the ball to Asparuhov and Petkovic, but the opponent's defense was solid, and they were at the mercy of a variety of attacks from Cisterna's setter Baranovic, and the gap only widened to 18-10.
At 23-15, Takahashi's spike went out, putting Cisterna at match point, but in the end, Cisterna won a joust at the net and comfortably took the individual and set at 25-15 to defeat Padova 3-1.
The MVP was Cisterna's setter, Baranovich.
Takahashi scored 7 points (1 serve, 1 block) on this day, with an attack success rate of 261 TP3T (3 mistakes, 3 blocked), which were quite poor numbers compared to his previous two matches in which he was in top form.
Milan's next match will be at home against Perugia on Sunday, 23 October at 18:00 local time.
Thoughts etc.
It was a match between two teams with two wins each and both on a roll, but Cisterna came out victorious.
What's more, it was unfortunate that we lost by a large margin in all sets except the second.
Takahashi was also completely shut down, making it seem like his outstanding performances in the past two games were a lie.
The pressure from the opposing block was particularly intense, and Takahashi was closely marked on his favorite cross course, causing him great difficulties.
The team conceded more attacks than they scored, so its effectiveness rate is negative.
I didn't want to see Takahashi like this.
However, I think we will continue to be marked as tightly as we were today, so unless we can perform at a certain level even when we are being marked, we will not survive in Italy.
Our next opponent, Perugia, will be an even tougher opponent, so I hope they can show their usual high level of performance!
I'm planning to watch this match live (laughs).
However, I think he continued to contribute as much as ever in terms of defense and passing.
When Takahashi wasn't on the court, the team seemed a little hectic, but when he was on the court, the team seemed to calm down and play with a better rhythm.
When it comes to defense and passing, I once again felt that he is already at the top level, even in the Italian league.
This is the harvest.
And Cisterna, they were a good team.
The relationship between blocking and receiving was good, and in the three sets that Cisterna took, they kept Padua's attack success rate quite low, at around 30%, and it seemed like they were actually connecting and picking up the ball quite a lot.
On the offensive side, although Jirlic's offensive power stood out, veteran setter Baranovic made good use of different attackers to gather the ball at each stage, making it difficult for them to narrow down their focus.
This area was as expected.
Cisterna has won all three games and is currently in first place as of October 17th.
I'm excited to see how far this success will continue.
I hope Padua can use this defeat as a lesson and move on to their next challenge against a strong opponent, Perugia.
I'd love to see a third giant killing!!
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Photo: Lega Pallavolo Serie A
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