In the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Ishikawa Yuki's Milan team played the fourth match of the playoff semi-finals against Civitanova at home on Saturday, April 22nd local time, and lost 2-3 (25-23, 25-18, 19-25, 22-25, 7-15).
Ishikawa Yuki started in this match and scored the team's highest 23 points.
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
In the first set, both teams started off scoring with different attackers, but Milano took the lead 7-5 thanks to Ishikawa's spikes.
In the middle of the game, Milano further widened the gap to 16-11 with an attack from Rosell and a block from Ishikawa.
From there, Civitanova gradually scored breaks with spikes from Zaitsev and Nikolov, tying the score at 23-23 in the final stages.
However, with a final spike from Melgarejo and a block from Piano, Milano took the set 25-23.
In the second set, Ishikawa started off with four consecutive service aces, followed by Rosell, who added another service ace, putting Milano in the lead at 7-2.
Civitanova narrowed the gap to 8-6 with a serve from Sineniese and a spike from Nikolov, but Milano again widened the gap to 12-6 with consecutive blocks from Piano.
After that, Civitanova continued to get breaks with spikes from Zaitsev, but Milano also broke with service aces from Patri, preventing the score from narrowing to 19-113.
Finally, Ishikawa and Rosell scored consecutive spikes, giving Milano the set 25-18.
In the third set, Milan again extended their lead early on with service aces from Ishikawa and Rosell to 6-3.
However, this time Civitanova turned the game around with service aces from Sineniese and Dececco to make it 7-8, and then with consecutive spikes from Nikolov they widened the gap to 13-16.
After that, Civitanova scored consecutive breaks with attacks from Zaitsev and blocks from Yount, and finally, with a service ace from Nikolov, Civitanova took the set at 19-25.
In the fourth set, both players broke each other's serves from the start and the score was tied at 6-6, but Milano took the lead 11-8 thanks to a service ace from Melgarejo and a spike from Ishikawa.
However, Yount scored consecutive attacks to tie the score at 14-14 for Civitanova, and from there the game became a close battle for side outs again.
In the final minutes, Porro blocked Yount to give Milan a two-point lead at 21-19, but Ishikawa was stopped by Anzani to tie the score again at 21-21.
Civitanova then scored consecutive breaks with a spike from Zaitsev and a block from Anzani to make the score 22-24, and finally a service ace from Yount gave Civitanova the set, 22-25.
In the fifth set, Civitanova scored points early on with spikes and service aces from Zaitsev and blocks from Sineniedze, taking a 2-5 lead.
Milan also got side outs with Ishikawa and Melgarejo but were unable to get a break. On the other hand, Civitanova scored four consecutive breaks with consecutive blocks from Anzani and a spike from Yount to widen the gap to 5-12.
Then, with an ace from Yount, Civitanova had match point at 6-14, and finally, Piano made a serve error, giving Civitanova the set 7-15.
Milan lost to Civitanova 2-3.
MVP: OH Marlon Yount (26 points (3 serves, 2 blocks), 70% attack success rate, 38% serve reception success rate)
Ishikawa Yuki led the team with 23 points (6 on serves and 2 on blocks), an attack success rate of 48%, and a serve receive success rate of 41%).
Milan now has a 2-2 record in the semifinals, and the winner of the next match, the fifth, will advance to the final.
The fifth game of the playoff semi-finals will be played away at Civitanova on Tuesday, April 25th at 18:00 local time (1:00 am Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
Milan suffers an unexpected defeat after coming from 2-0 down...
But it's these kinds of comebacks that make volleyball, a set sport, so interesting.
Milan was in high spirits during the first and second sets, spurred on by thunderous cheers from a packed house of over 5,000.
Although the score difference in the first set was small at 25-23, Civitanova was never behind, and in the second set, Ishikawa overwhelmed them with a total of six service aces, including four consecutive service aces, to take the set without any trouble.
They started well in the third set, but after losing an ace with a floater serve from their opponent, the momentum shifted in Civitanova's favor, and they ended up losing three sets in a row, resulting in a reversal defeat.
Civitanova's Yant stood out especially from the third set onwards, but Milano, especially Ishikawa, struggled with Civitanova's jump floater serves throughout the match.
It wasn't so noticeable in the first set because Civitanova made many serve errors, and in the second set because Milan had a lot of service aces, but I think their return rate was already poor from the early stages of the match.
This became very apparent from the third set onwards, and although they didn't directly concede many points, I think it took away Milan's attacking options and led to them receiving more blocks from the third set onwards.
I think it was especially important that Rosell, who won the MVP in Game 3, was unable to return good passes that would have allowed him to use his quick moves when he was up front.
In fact, in the third match, Rosell had 12 attacks in three sets, but in this fourth match, even though it went to a full set, he only had the same 12 as in the third match (and his success rate also dropped).
Instead, the number of quick shots from the piano increased, but as the match progressed, he was unable to hit the ball in good condition and his success rate dropped.
I also think that pipe attacks were thwarted in many situations.
Also, it seemed like this match lacked Milan's strengths, such as persevering from rebounds and winning rallies, and their typical Milan play.
On the other hand, it felt like the attack was rushed.
That's the impression I got from Ishikawa's block at the end of the fourth set and Patry's block in the fifth set.
Hey, Patry.
We had been doing well up until this point, but then we couldn't score at all in the second half of the game.
In this match, the three players on the sides had the fewest number of attacks.
After all, unless Patry does his job, we won't be able to move up.
Good luck, Patry!!
Milan had already won two matches and two more sets, and the final was within their sights, but then they were caught off guard.
With a final score of two wins and two losses, they will advance to the fifth race at Civitanova, but I hope they can now reset their mindset and go all out as challengers looking to beat last season's champions, Civitanova.
Photo: Lega Pallavolo Series A
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