In the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Milan, where Ishikawa Yuki plays, played the second leg of the playoff quarter-finals against Perugia at home on Wednesday, March 22nd local time, and won 3-2 (27-25, 25-21, 21-25, 18-25, 15-13).
Ishikawa Yuki was in the starting lineup for this match as well, and contributed to the team's victory with 18 points, second highest on the team.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ishikawa
MB: Rosell (Argentina), piano (Italy)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Perugia
OH: Leon (Poland), Semeniuk (Poland)
MB: Sole (Argentina/Italy), Filavio (Brazil)
OP: Herrera (Cuba)
S: Giannelli (Italy)
L: Coraci (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, Perugia made a series of spike errors early on, allowing Milan to take a 5-3 lead.
However, consecutive blocks from MB Sole and a service ace from OP Herrera gave Perugia five consecutive breaks in the middle of the game, allowing them to turn the game around to 9-13.
From there, Milan scored points mainly through OH Ishikawa, while Perugia scored points mainly through OH Leon, but Milan gradually narrowed the gap with service aces from S. Porro.
Towards the end of the set, Milan tied the score at 22-22 with a spike from OP Patri, and then relief server MB Vitelli (Italy) scored an ace to put Milan ahead at 24-23 and reach set point first.
The game then went to deuce, but in the end, substitute Ebadipour (Iran) converted a difficult ball from OH Ishikawa during a rally into a point, and Milan took the set 27-25.
In the second set, the match progressed with both players scoring points with sets scattered in the early stages, but the score remained tied at 8-8.
In the middle of the game, Milan scored a break with a block from MB Rosell and a service ace from OH Ishikawa, but Perugia also managed to regain the break with a service ace from OH Leon and a block from S Giannelli, and the score remained at 20-20 as the game approached the end.
However, OH Melgarejo scored consecutive points with a spike and a block, and MB Piano also scored a block point in succession, giving Milan a set point lead of 24-20.
Finally, OH Melgarejo scored a powerful spike to give Milan the set, 25-21.
In the third set, Perugia, with no other options, started the game with OH Plotnicki (Ukraine) and OP Lichlicki (Luxembourg/Italy).
OH Plotnicki scored two consecutive service aces early on to give Perugia a 2-5 lead.
Furthermore, with a spike from OH Leon after a fake set by OH Plotnicki and a service ace from OH Leon, Perugia widened the lead to 5-12 and pulled away from Milan.
Milan then brought on OH Ebadipour and MB Vitelli, but the score gap widened further to 14-23.
However, from here MB Rosell's serve got going, and Milano succeeded in six consecutive breaks thanks to service aces, opponent's attack mistakes, and OH Ishikawa's counter pipe attack, quickly closing the gap to just two points at 21-23.
However, Perugia took the set back with a block from OP Lihilicki to make it 21-25.
In the early stages of the fourth set, Milan scored points mainly from OH Ishikawa, but Perugia broke the ball with quick plays from MB Flavio and pipe attacks from OH Leon to take a 6-9 lead.
OH Plotnicki then widened the gap to 7-14 with four consecutive breaks, including two service aces.
Milan also narrowed the gap to 14-17 with three consecutive blocks by MB Piano, but then allowed Perugia to break through with a spike from OP Lihilicki, making the score 14-20.
In the end, OH Leon scored a high spike to give Perugia the set 18-25, sending the match into a full set.
In the fifth set, Milan cut off OH Plotnicki's serve with a single spike from MB Piano, and although both teams continued to get side outs, Milan continued to take the lead.
Plotnicki's serve on the second lap was a mistake, leading to a court change at 8-7, but then OH Ishikawa was caught in a block by OH Leon, giving Milan a 9-10 lead and allowing Perugia to take the lead.
However, OH Melgarejo scored consecutive spikes from there, and Milan once again managed to turn the game around to make it 11-10.
Furthermore, S. Porro picked up S. Giannelli's two attacks and OH Melgarejo scored the ball to make it 13-11, and then MB Rosell scored a service ace to make it 14-11, giving Milan the first match point.
Perugia's MB Flavio stopped OH Melgarejo to close the gap to 14-13, but in the final rally OH Plotnicki's spike went out, and Milan took the set 15-13 and defeated Perugia 3-2.
MVP: OH Osniel Melgarejo (22 points (4 blocks), attack success rate 42%, serve reception success rate 33%)
Ishikawa Yuki scored 18 points (1 on serve), with an attack success rate of 47% and a serve reception success rate of 45%.
The next match, the third leg of the playoff quarter-finals, will be held away to Perugia on Sunday, March 26th at 17:00 local time (1:00 am Japan time).
Thoughts on the match etc.
Milan won!!!
Honestly, I still can't believe it.
Although I wanted Milan to win, objectively I thought Perugia would win three games in a row and easily advance to the semi-finals.
After all, Perugia had only lost one official match this season, and Milan had played three times without winning a single set.
So, although it was just after the Japanese national team had defeated the previous year's champions, the United States, to win the WBC, I believe the Milan team achieved something that was even more difficult than the feat achieved by the Japanese national baseball team (laughs).
It feels like we've already made it to the semi-finals, but we still need to win two more games against this monster army to advance, it's going to be a tough journey.
But anyway, it was a very, very big win.
In the first game of the last match, most of the attacks from the side attackers other than Ishikawa were ineffective, but on this day Melgarejo, who also won the MVP award, was in excellent form.
Although we struggled with the opponent's blocks in the third and fourth sets, which were taken by Perugia, we were able to score with ease in the first, second and fifth sets, including the high balls, and it seemed like we had almost everything set.
It was also good that they didn't just focus on powerful hits, but mixed in some soft hits to add variety.
Thank you Merga!!!
Ishikawa has often been getting a little too heated lately, but on this day he seemed to be able to keep a cool head and keep an eye on the court.
His signature feints were also effective, and I think Ishikawa was undoubtedly "Mr. Ishikawa" on this day (laughs).
In addition to that, the middle players, including Rosell's serve, Vitelli's serve, and Piano's block, all had their moments to shine, and libero Pesaresi also held up well today.
Also, in the fifth set, setter Porro reacted to Giannelli's two and picked up the ball, which was thrilling!!!
It would not be an exaggeration to say that that play decided the game.
In this match, Giannelli's two-attack had already been blocked by Melgarejo.
I think it's quite rare for Giannelli to play a full set and not get one of his two attacks to go through.
This shows that Milan was wary of two-attacks and was able to deal with them well.
But, Patry.
There were some good plays, but overall it was still lackluster.
Melgarejo was on fire today and Ishikawa was good too which is why we won, but it would have been so much easier if you had scored more goals.
Milan was really impressive today, but they're still not at their best.
Good luck, Patry, we want to see you doing well.
However, Perugia, or rather Plotnicki, was a truly scary player.
I was defeated by his serve in the first match, and I was defeated by his serve again this time.
As expected, it's one of my favorites (lol).
We were really lucky that his serve didn't run in the fifth set.
If the final round had ended in deuce and Plotnicki had been on the serve for the third time, I think Milan would probably have lost.
Milan will probably return Plotnicki to the starting lineup for the next match, so they will want to get rid of their weakness in this area as soon as possible.
And as I've said many times before, good luck Patrie!!
Good luck Forza Milano with those two more wins!
Photo: Lega Pallavolo SerieA
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