Last Friday, January 27th, I went to a town called Ilawa to cover Nysa and Olsztyn, the teams that Polish league player Miyaura Kento plays for.
Olsztyn's hometown is of course Olsztyn, but the arena there is currently under renovation, so this season they are playing their home games in an arena in the nearby town of Iława.
It takes about two hours by express train from Warsaw, where I live, to Ilawa, and the fare is about 2,000 yen, so this time I made it a day trip.
Ilawa is a lakeside town with a beach on the lakeshore, so summer is probably the best season to visit, but it still had a nice atmosphere in winter.
As I was doing so, I discovered Nisa's bus!
That meant the arena must be quite nearby, and it was right in front of us.
It seems to be this building.
It may be hard to tell from a photo, but it was a fairly small building and really felt like a local gymnasium (lol).
The inside of the venue looks like this.
There are about 1200 seats so I guess that's about right.
It was a small arena but very beautiful.
I entered the stadium about an hour before the start of the game, and players from both teams were already there (Nisa's coach Prinski and setter Zukowski were talking about something).
This is what it looks like from above.
We were also able to confirm that Miyaura-kun was alive and well (laughs).
Today's first one# Kento Miyaura pic.twitter.com/9Ae2l2Z9DW
— TOSHIKI (@toshikit71) January 27, 2023
The opponent on this day, Olsztyn, was a well-balanced team with point getters at every position, including OP Butrin (Poland), OH Lipinski (Poland), and MB Evril (USA).
In particular, our opposite, Butorin, is a volleyball player at 194cm tall, and although he is small for an opposite, he has the ability to jump up to 360cm and his powerful spikes and serves are his weapons, and he is a player that both Miyaura and I love (laughs).
Another good thing about Butorin is that his performance doesn't fluctuate much.
He is currently the third-choice opposite for the Polish national team, but personally I would like to see him in the starting lineup, although I feel a bit bad for Krek (laughs).
Furthermore, Olsztyn is close to Nysa in terms of points and rankings, and both teams are vying for a place in the playoffs, so this was a very important match for both teams.
However, in the previous week's match, Olsztyn's starting setter, Tuaninga (USA), was injured and will not be able to return this season, so this was also a match that Olsztyn was worried about.
On the other hand, it was a big opportunity for Nisa, so she must have wanted to win at all costs.
Early in the first set, Olsztyn's OP Butrin scored one point after another with his attacks and serves.
After that, Olsztyn scored a service ace for Nisa, putting her behind 2-5.
Even in this environment, the sound of the Nisa cheering squad's drums echoed loudly throughout the venue.
However, the Nisa supporters, who are usually quite large even when the team is away, were fewer in number on this day.
It can't be helped, as it takes six or seven hours by car, but I could feel the love for the club as I watched the players cheering at the top of their lungs.
However, the match continued with Olsztyn in the lead.
OP Butrin was amazing, but MB Everil also did a great job with his serves and attacks, and I think his attacks in particular had a 100% success rate until halfway through the match.
Also, in Olsztyn, director Weber's action scenes were amazing, they stood out the most (laughs).
However, Nisa also pulled ahead with a spike from OH Kwasovski and a block from MB Jankowski tied the score at 18-18.
However, Nisa again conceded a service ace, and relief server Miyaura also failed to get a break on serve, giving Olsztyn the first set point at 22-24.
From there, OP Butrin made some mistakes and the score became 24-24, but in the end, their serve was disrupted and OH Kwasovski was stopped by OP Butrin's block, giving Olsztyn a 24-26 win.
It's hard to believe that Olsztyn is a reserve setter, but his mid-range shots are very effective.
In the second set, Nisa started off with successive middle blocks and took the lead at 7-3.
Although he didn't have any aces on serve, he was able to effectively shut down his opponent's quick plays that had caused trouble in the first set.
The venue had also become noticeably quiet (laughs).
I also happened to look at the bench and saw Miyaura-kun watching the game while training with a rubber tube.
Olsztyn then caught up to make it 14-14, but Nisa also scored some goals with spikes from OH Gerjot and others.
Also, today S. Zukowski was unusually good at using the mid-range shots and MB Zerba scored some good quick shots.
Miyaura came in as a relief server in this set as well, but was again unable to get a break.
However, Nisa continued to take the lead, and finally a high spike from OH Gerjot scored to win the set at 25-22 in favour of Nisa.
However, in the early part of the third set, Nisar was leading with aces from OP Ventara, but then he got service aces from MB Evril and OP Butrin, and then he suffered three consecutive breaks from S Jankevich's serve, so he fell into his usual losing pattern of poor serve reception and it seemed like he had no other options.
S. Yankevich's spirit was incredible, he roared every time a point was scored and his face was red.
I think there must have been a lot of pressure with Tuaninga gone.
Even after replacing OH Gerdjot with the skilled OH Busek, Nisa's serve reception was still unstable and the score remained 13-21.
Nysaz also wanted to attack with her serve, but when OH Kaliczek came on to replace OH Lipinski, who had been the serve target until then, the effectiveness of Nysaz's serve was reduced, and she struggled to attack.
Here we replaced OP Ventara with OP Miyaura, but I guess there's nothing we can do if we're replaced here.
As expected, they were unable to do anything and instead Olsztyn's further service aces widened the gap to 15-25 in favour of Olsztyn.
In the fourth set, Nisa set up a formation that eliminated OH Gerjot, who had been the opponent's serve target from the start.
In the early stages, OP Ventala scored a lot of points and took the lead 6-3, but OH Kwasovski lost consecutive serves from OH Andringa, and Olsztyn turned the game around to 9-10.
With four of Olsztyn's six starting players now hitting aces, they were under pressure with almost every serve.
After that, a red card was shown for coach Weber's delaying tactics, and Nisa was back in the lead at 14-11. Just when we were thinking ``Can we keep going like this?!'', OP Butrin hit another service ace, two at that...
The atmosphere in the venue, which had been a bit unpleasant up until then, suddenly became very lively.
With this rotation, Olsztyn took the lead at 14-15, and then added another break to make it 16-19.
Relief server Miyaura wanted to catch up, but this time his serve went into the net.
Continuing their momentum, Olsztyn won 21-25, giving them a 1-3 victory.
It was disappointing that we couldn't win the match right after our starting setter was injured.
On the other hand, I think Olsztyn will now be able to approach future matches without too much anxiety.
As for Miyaura personally, it was a disappointing result as he had not had many serves with no breaks up until now.
He actually mentioned that himself.
Still, Olsztyn's OP Butrin was great.
Although there were some missed attacks along the way, they were able to correct them and get their performance back on track.
Of course, it's best to stay in good form throughout the game, but I once again felt that players who can adjust their play during the game are strong.
Miyaura-kun also gave it high praise.
I'll have to get more muscular to look like Butorin (lol).
Next week they will play at home against Lublin, who are also close in points.
Last time I was beaten by MB Nowakowski, or as I call him, "Bladed-chested Novak," so I'd like to get revenge somehow.
I'd also like to see Miyaura-kun's individual performance!!
The next one will also be an on-site interview!!!
Photo: Author
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