In the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Yuki Ishikawa's Milan team played the second leg of the playoff semi-finals against Civitanova at home on Sunday, April 16th local time, and won 3-2 (25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-9).
Yuki Ishikawa started in this match and was selected as the MVP of the match after scoring 22 points, the most for both teams.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ishikawa
MB: Rosell (Argentina), piano (Italy)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Civitanova
OH: Nikolov (Bulgaria), Yant (Cuba)
MB: Sineniese (France), Anzani (Italy)
OP: Zaitsev (Italy)
S: Dececco (Argentina)
L: Barrasso (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
The first set started off with consecutive spikes from Melgarejo, consecutive attack errors from Nikolov, and a service ace from Patri, giving Milan a 6-0 lead.
From there, they got side outs mainly through Patry's spikes, and with blocks from Piano and Patry as well, they further widened the lead to 18-11.
The game continued in the final stages, with Civitanova's serve finally going out, giving Milan the set 25-18.
In the second set, Milano took an 8-6 lead early on with spikes and service aces from Rosell, but Civitanova turned the game around with consecutive spikes and aces from Zaitsev to take a 10-11 lead.
From there, Ishikawa and Yant each scored spikes to make the score 16-16, but then Civitanova took the lead with three consecutive breaks thanks to a spike from Nikolov and a block from Zaitsev, taking the lead at 16-19.
After that, Civitanova continued to score consecutive points with attacks from Nikolov and other players, putting them at set point at 18-24, and finally Anzani's quick shot gave Civitanova the set, 20-25.
The third set started with Milan's Ishikawa and Civitanova's Sineniese trading shots, and even after both players dropped to the back court, the match continued with the score tied at 8-8 as they fought for side outs.
However, immediately after that, Milano took the lead with four consecutive breaks from Pollo's serve, an ace from his own side, and a spike and block from Ishikawa, putting them ahead at 13-8.
After that, Civitanova closed the gap to two points at 18-16 thanks to a service ace from substitute Bottolo (OH, Italy) and a spike from Zaitsev, but Milan also broke through with spikes from Rosell and Patri to widen the gap again to 23-18.
Finally, Melgarejo's spike was successful and Milan took the set 25-21.
In the fourth set, Milano took a 5-2 lead early on with a block from Rosell and a service ace from Ishikawa.
However, Civitanova then turned the game around with a spike from Nikolov and a service ace from Yount to make it 8-9, and then Nikolov scored another spike to make it 10-12.
From there, side outs continued, but in the final stages, Civitanova extended her lead to 16-19 with a spike from Sineniedze, and then with a spike from Zaitsev and other efforts, she took the lead at 20-24 and got the set point.
In the end, Melgarejo's serve was a mistake, and Civitanova took the set 21-25.
In the fifth set, Civitanova made a series of attacking mistakes from the beginning, but Milan got off to a good start with a 6-2 lead thanks to Ishikawa's pipe attack and Rosell's quick shot.
From there, Piano and Patrie got block points, further widening the gap to 11-5.
Milan continued to lead into the final stages of the match, and with a final spike from Ishikawa and a block from Rosell, Milan took the set 15-9.
As a result, Milan won against Civitanova 3-2.
MVP: OH Ishikawa Yuki (22 points (1 serve, 1 block), attack success rate 54%, serve reception success rate 52%)
The third match of the playoff semi-finals will be held away at Civitanova on Wednesday, April 19th at 8:30pm local time (3:30am Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
As expected, they won against Civitanova with a completely different performance from the first race!!!
In particular, in the first set, Patri was outstanding with his spiking and serving, overwhelming Civitanova (although their opponents made many attacking mistakes).
This set also made me realize once again that when Patri is in good form, he can fight so easily even against Civitanova.
I thought he would continue on like this and even win the MVP, but then he lost some momentum...
The MVP was won by Ishikawa, who stepped up his offensive game in inverse proportion to Patry's decline.
Personally, I believe that awakening Patri and winning the MVP award is the biggest step towards advancing to the finals and winning the championship, so I hope that he will soon get some kind of trigger and make a big change.
We already know very well how amazing Ishikawa is, because he's Master Yuki (according to Bottro) (laughs).
I think it was the 14th point of the third set, when he hit a difficult high ball that went up towards the middle of the net, which was blocked by three players, and then he hit it hard and scored a point. It was an amazing scene.
Generally, Ishikawa would get the rebound in situations like that, but he decided to take advantage of that opportunity and hit it hard, which led to a point.
If there were slow-motion replays, you could see the blocking movements and get a better understanding of the aerial tactics involved, which I think would be interesting.
But before that, Patry also made a nice play by connecting with an underhand shot just in time and setting up a hit.
This combination is really hot.
Zaitsev was amazing at Civitanova.
While playing opposite, he receives serves in all rotations except for the S6 rotation, and is skilled enough to join the 2 rotation pipe attack as a backcourt player.
This resulted in high attack success rates of 63% and serve reception success rates of 62%.
He has been sidelined on the Italian national team due to the generational change after the Tokyo Olympics, but he is still a good player.
Because he looks like a gorilla, people tend to emphasize his power, but he started his career as a setter and is a dual-sword player who plays OP/OH, so it's no wonder he's skillful.
He's a really tough player to have as an enemy.
Nikolov was hitting the ball like he did in the first game, but his instability saved this match.
Their form fluctuated dramatically between the sets won by Milano and the sets won by Civitanova, and when they made plays they made them like crazy, but when they made mistakes they made mistakes one after the other.
He's still only 19 years old, so once he can get this down he'll be a really troublesome player.
Also notable in this match were the new and old Milan foreign midfielders Rosell and Sinenieze.
Sinenieze was superior in spiking, while Rosell was superior in blocking and serving.
However, Civitanova's setter is Dececco, who is from Argentina like Rosell, so I thought it would have been even more fearsome if these two had teamed up (laughs).
And somehow Milano managed to win in a full set.
Will they be able to maintain this momentum and win the third game away? Or will Civitanova make a comeback?
At the very least, it's sure to be an exciting match.
However, personally, I think it will be a close game until the fifth match, with both teams competing at home, just like Perugia.
Photo: Powervolleymilano
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