In the 4th round of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Milan, where Ishikawa Yuki plays, played against Civitanova on Sunday, November 12th (local time) and won 3-0 (25-21, 27-25, 25-21). Ishikawa Yuki started the game and scored 9 points.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Kaziyski (Bulgaria), Ishikawa
MB: Rosell (Argentina), piano (Italy)
OP: Regels (Belgium)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Catania (Italy)
Civitanova
OH: Zaitsev (Italy), Nikolov (Italy)
MB: Sinenieze (France), Diamantini (Italy)
OP: Laguncia (Türkiye)
S: Dececco (Argentina)
L: Barrasso (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Match Report
In the first set, Milano took a 4-2 lead thanks to OH Ishikawa's pipe attack. After that, OP Lagunzia's spikes and MB Sineniese's service ace helped Civitanova to pull ahead to 13-15 by the middle of the match, and while both teams traded breaks, Civitanova continued to lead 19-21. However, Milano scored consecutive points from OH Ishikawa's serve, OH Kaziyski's spikes and MB Rosell's blocks, and they turned the game around to 24-21 and reached set point. Finally, OH Ishikawa scored a no-touch ace with all his might to take the set 25-21.
In the second set, Milan's OP Regels and Civitanova's OH Zaitsev traded shots at the beginning, but Milan's mistakes and OP Lagunzia's blocks gave Civitanova a 7-9 lead. Milan then took side outs with spikes from OH Kaziyski, but the score remained the same and advanced to 17-19. However, Milan managed to turn the game around with a spike from OP Regels and a service ace to make it 20-19. Furthermore, relief server MB Vitelli's serve put Milan on set point at 24-22. After that, Civitanova took the game to deuce at 24-24 with spikes from OH Nikolov, but in the end OH Zaitsev's spike made an error and Milan won the set at 27-25.
In the third set, Milan made it 3-1 with a block from MB Rosell, and Civitanova quickly turned the game around with blocks from MB Anzani (Italy) to make it 6-7. However, Milan took the lead again with 13-10 thanks to opponent mistakes and blocks from OP Regels. After that, Civitanova tied the score at 19-19 with a service ace from OH Bottolo, but in the final stages, OH Kaziyski scored consecutive spikes from MB Rosell's serve, putting Milan at 24-20 and giving them a match point. And in the end, OH Kaziyski scored another spike, giving Milan a 25-21 victory in this set.
As a result, Milan won against Civitanova 3-0.
MVP: OP Ferre Regels (15 points (13 attacks, 1 serve, 1 block), attack efficiency rate 60.00%)
Ishikawa scored 9 points (1 on serve) with an attack effectiveness rate of 18.18%.
Milan now sits in provisional 10th place with a record of 1 win, 3 losses and 4 points.
Their next match will be against second-placed Trentino on Thursday, November 16th at 4:30am Japan time.
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
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Toshiki's Tweets
Welcome back, Pollo!!!
The starting setter, Pollo, has fully recovered from the injury he suffered before the opening game. At the same time, Milano has made a comeback like a different team from the previous three games, and finally won their first game, and it was a win against the strong Civitanova. Up until this point, it felt like they were only fighting among themselves, but in this game, I think they were fighting well against their opponents without feeling too much stress on their own court.
I was excited to see OH Ishikawa's quick pipe attack from S Pollo's set and MB Rosell's drift quick for the first time in a while.
However, Ishikawa himself did not perform very well overall. Three of his spikes were blocked, making his attack effectiveness rate less than 20%. His serve reception numbers were also not good. However, I thought it was impressive that he was able to do his job well at key moments even when his overall performance was not good, such as his serve at the end of the first set and his spike at deuce in the second set.
Even so, the attacks of players other than Ishikawa were well-scored in this game. Last season, there were many situations where only Ishikawa was able to score, so I was reminded that the reinforcements this season were a good hit.
The opposite player, Regels, who was also selected as the MVP, was particularly outstanding. With a graceful jump, he made sharp spikes one after another from a high impact point. This match was a perfect display of his true ability, which made him the best scorer in the entire Paris Olympic qualifying tournament held at three venues this year. Pollo also continued to set up sets that made good use of his height, so Regels seemed to be playing lively like a fish in water.
Originally, I think that the opposite position was expected to be played by another player, Dilić (Croatia). This time, the condition of his sprained foot was not yet perfect, so Regels was in the starting lineup as in the previous game, but with such a performance, the competition for the opposite position is likely to become fierce from now on.
I hope he will do his best because it's fun to watch the jumping opposites. By the way, Regels is a slightly 20-year-old player, the same age as Kai of the Japanese national team. He's very young.
Civitanova had some early leads, but they were unable to take a single set in the final stages. However, in the third set, I was thrilled by the service ace by OH Bottolo, who I personally support and who answered my interview questions last season. It's frustrating that he has the ability to be a starter on other teams but doesn't get to play in games very often, but I hope he can do well. I was teammates with both Ishikawa and Takahashi in the past.
Milan's next opponent is the strong Trentino. For Kaziyski, it will be a match against his former club, but with Porro back in Milan, they have a good chance of winning. I think the key will be whether they can attack aggressively with their serves, and how they can handle the matchup between the 211cm OH Micheletto and the 185cm Porro!!
Forza Milano!!
Photo: Powervolleymilano
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