In the fifth round of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Ishikawa Yuki's Milan team played against Verona at home on Sunday, October 30th (local time) and lost in straight sets 0-3 (20-25, 22-25, 23-25).
In this match, Ishikawa Yuki entered the match midway through the first set and showed a high performance with the team's highest score of 11 points (1 of which was on serve) and an attack success rate of 561 TP and 3 T, but it was not enough to lead the team to victory.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ebadipour (Iran)
MB: Rosell (Argentina), piano (Italy)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Verona
OH: Keita (Mali), Mojic (Slovenia)
MB: Cortesia (Italy), Grozdanov (Bulgaria)
OP: Sapodhukov (Russia)
S: Spirito (Italy)
L: Gaggini (Italy)
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
In the first set, Verona's serve was effective and they managed to break early on with spikes from OH Mozic, extending their lead to 3-7.
Milan then narrowed the gap to 7-9 with two consecutive service aces from setter Porro, but Verona again widened the gap to 8-14 after OP Patri was blocked.
Milan then sent Ishikawa Yuki onto the court to replace OH Melgarejo.
Immediately after the substitution, Ishikawa scored a spike, and then MB Rosell scored a service ace, trying to bring momentum to the team.
However, Verona scored points with a service ace from MB Grozdanov, a spike from Mozic, and a block, and did not give the initiative to Milan, going on to take the first set 20-25.
In the second set, Milan's Patri and OH Ebadipour, while Verona's Mozic led the way in scoring, and the match was close until the middle of the game.
However, a spike error by Patry widened the gap to 3 points at 14-17, and Verona managed to hold on to this lead by securing side outs with spikes from OP Zabozhukov and other plays, taking the set 22-25.
In the third set, Milano had no choice but to go for it. Right after the start of the set, Porro got a service ace, followed by a pipe attack from Ishikawa, a block from MB Piano, and some mistakes from Verona, and Milano got off to a good start with an 8-3 lead.
After that, Patry continued to lose points with his spikes, and Verona closed the gap to 13-11, but with an ace from Rosell and a spike from Ishikawa, Milan maintained their lead at 22-19 as the set came to an end.
Ishikawa then scored a service ace to make the score 23-19 and it looked as though Milan would take the set, but Verona's counterattack was waiting.
OH Keita's spike got a side out to make the score 23-20, and from there Keita's serves attacked the Milan receivers, and Verona made four consecutive breaks with his own pipe attacks and aces.
At 23-24, Verona had the first match point.
In the end, Ebadipoour missed a shot, and Verona took the set 23-25 to beat Milan in straight sets.
Mozic was selected as the MVP after scoring 13 points (including two blocks).
Milan now sits in sixth place with three wins, two losses and seven points.
Next week, they will play away against league leaders Perugia on Sunday, November 6th at 7:00pm local time (3:00am Japan time).
Thoughts etc.
I was blown away by how the third set unfolded.
After all, volleyball is a sport, and this match reminded us that anything can happen right until the very end.
They were overturned from 23-19 down, and instead of going to deuce, they went all the way to the end.
This happened right after Ishikawa's service ace, so the feeling of despair was extreme...
It was the Amazing Keita.
Verona was a great team with the return of setter Spirito and the return of middle player Grozdanov, who had not been able to play much due to the foreign player limit, and their serve and block really worked well.
The goal-scoring ability of the three side players, Mozic, Keita and Savozhukov, was incredible (581 goal-scoring percentage between the three, 3 tries), and they were impossible to stop.
Milan wanted to attack with their serves, but they made many serve errors in the first and second sets and were unable to apply enough pressure.
I also think a big reason for the loss was that our point scorer, Patry, was not in good form throughout the game.
It's also possible that Porro's decision to continue to tossing the ball to Ebadipoour at the end of the third set was unrelated to Patrie's poor form.
But it was truly a very disappointing loss for Milan.
However, there was also a positive outcome: Ishikawa's revival.
In his post-match comments it sounded as if he was still not in top form, but looking at the numbers from the match, he had a high success rate, stable serve receive, and conceded few points, so I think it was a great performance that was typical of Ishikawa.
We hope to see Ishikawa make a full comeback as a starter next week!
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A
All Italian league matches are broadcast live and archived on Volleyball World TV! If you haven't done so yet, check out the link below to find out how to watch and cheer on the players together!
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