In the 23rd round of the Polish Men's Volleyball League (Przlyga), Nysza, which is in 9th place and includes Miyaura Kento, played against 8th place Lublin at home on Saturday, February 4th local time, and won 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-23).
Kento Miyaura played as a relief server in the second and third sets.
First set starting lineup
Nisa
OH: Gerzhod (Poland), Kwasowski (Poland)
MB: Jankowski (Poland), Zerba (Argentina)
OP: Bentara (Tunisia)
S: Zukowski (Croatia)
L: Dembiec (Poland) / Biniek (Poland)
Lublin
OH: Cherszyn (Poland), Wlodarczyk (Poland)
MB: Nowakowski (Poland), Jendrick (USA)
OP: Romachi (Poland)
S: Komenda (Poland)
L: Watten (USA)
*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, OP Ventala scored a service ace early in the match, and he continued to score with attacks and blocks to give Nisa a 6-3 lead.
From there, towards the middle of the game, both teams continued to make side-outs while effectively using the middle shots.
With the score at 15-13, OP Ventala scored another service ace, followed by OH Kwasovski with an ace, and Nisa extended the lead to 19-14.
In the final stages, Lublin scored a block point from S. Komenda's serve, bringing the score to 22-20, but in the end, OP Bentala scored a spike from a serve by relief server OH El Graoui (Morocco) to give Nisa the set, 25-21.
In the second set, OP Ventala's serves were strong from the start, and with a block from S Zukowski and a direct spike from OH Kwasovski, the team quickly widened the gap to 5-0.
Lublin also got three consecutive breaks, including a service ace, from OH Shershen's serve to close the gap to 11-10, but Nisa added points with spikes and aces from OP Ventala, spikes and blocks from MB Zerba, and an ace from S Zukowski to widen the gap again to 21-15.
In the final stages, Nisa broke from relief server Miyaura's serve to grab a set point at 24-18, and finally took the set with what was essentially a service ace from Miyaura to make it 25-18.
In the third set, Nisa started with OP Miyaura in MB Zerba's place and entrusted him with serving from the start.
Unfortunately the serve hit the net, and from there side-outs were repeated in the early stages, but Lublin added points with a spike from MB Jendrik and a service ace from OH Schershen to take an 8-10 lead.
However, in the middle of the game, Nisa again broke OP Ventala's serve, and then OH Kfasovski hit an ace to turn the game around to 18-17.
From there, the game continued to be closely matched with OH Gerdzhot of Nysa and OH Wlodarczyk of Lublin trading shots, but in the final stages Nysa got consecutive block points to take a 23-21 lead, and finally OH Kwasovski's spike scored to give Nysa the win at 25-23, winning the set 3-0 against Lublin.
MVP: OP Wasim Bentala (18 points (3 serves, 3 blocks), attack success rate 571 TP 3 T)
Miyaura played in the second and third sets, and although he did not score any points, he did well with two breaks on serve.
With this, Nisa's overall record improved to 12 wins, 11 losses and 37 points, moving them back up to 8th place.
The next match will be against Xabierce, who are in third place, away from home on Sunday 12 February at 14:45 local time (22:45 Japan time).
The report for the first half is here:
Thoughts on the match etc.
I was there to watch the match, and I think it was a fantastic game that was typical of NISZA.
Just attack, attack, and attack with your serve.
Even when Gerjot was thrown off by the opponent's serves or had an ace stolen from him, he continued to hit hard with serves even more.
When we lost to Lublin in the first half of the game, we struggled a lot with the opponent's mid-range shots, so I think being able to attack with our serves and thwart their mid-range attacks was a huge factor in our victory.
In particular, the pairing of Ventala and Kfasovski was successful in widening the gap in the points.
In the first and second sets, the rotation was such that either Ventala would start the serve, and this strategy worked perfectly.
The third set started with Miyaura, who had been serving well towards the end of the second set, and we wanted to take the lead with serves from these three players: Miyaura, Ventala, and Kfasovski. However, Miyaura made a mistake on his first serve and was unable to get into the flow, and the other two players also failed to get a break on the first lap, making the early part of the third set a bit difficult.
The tactic of having the relief server serve first and then switching with the middle server when he moves forward is an excellent tactic in that by switching again at the end, the relief server can serve twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of the set.
In fact, it was used by the Polish national team at the Tokyo Olympics, the French national team at the World Championships, and also by Toray when Suzuki Yuji was on the team.
However, since the top three teams all used substitutions between middle players, even if the game had turned into deuce after two substitutions and the set continued, they could have continued to play as a middle player even if they moved to the front, so there was no problem.
However, in Nisa's case this time, it was opposite and middle, so ideally they would have wanted to give the serve back to Miyaura in the final stages, but the score difference was small and there was a possibility that it would go to deuce, so Miyaura did not have a chance to play in the final stages.
The coach was aware of this, but wanted to keep the good momentum from the second set going, and although it didn't work out in the end, I personally watched it thinking, "Wow, this is interesting."
I don't dislike it (lol).
By the way, it seems that this strategy was suddenly announced after the second set had finished, and even Miyaura himself said he was surprised (laughs).
As for serves, Gerjot was hitting aces in every game in the first half, but I'm still worried that his serve hasn't returned.
If Gerjot's serve gets on track, our chances of beating the top teams will increase dramatically.
Also, the opposite Ventara was very stable not only in serves but also in spikes.
After seeing this performance, we have to say that unfortunately it will be tough for Miyaura to play as a spiker...
There are rumors that Ventara will be transferring to a big Italian club (Perugia?) next season, so I think he will be on the path to becoming a top player from now on.
Even though Miyaura does not have a chance to play, I hope he will continue to steal what he can from his world-class opposite and use it as a learning experience for the future.
Also in this match, the ball often flowed to MB Zelva, who was the recipient of Miyaura's passes, and he often scored goals.
Setter Zukowski's low number of hits to the middle of the court was a problem, but recently it seems that he has been consciously increasing the number of shots to the middle of the court.
However, his sets are still not stable, and in this match his sets were often too low, which resulted in him being unable to hit the middle shots, but it was great to see him continue using them and making the necessary corrections!
Also, Zukowski's soft two-attack in the third set was very stylish (laughs).
Also, in Lublin, OH Wlodarczyk was impressive with a spike success rate of 631 TP3T, which was higher than OP Ventala in terms of spikes alone.
There are rumors that he will be transferring to Nissa next season, so it looks like next season will be interesting as well!
For now, Nisa was able to get a great revenge on Lublin for the first half of the match.
Next week we will be playing against Xabierce, who beat us pretty badly in the first half of the season, so we will be hoping to get revenge and advance to the playoffs in the top spot!
And it would be even better if we could see Miyanoura's attack!!
Good luck Nisa!!!
Photo: PSG Stal Nysa
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