The Italian Serie A Superliga volleyball match between Padua and Modena took place on October 1st at 20:30 local time, and Padua, led by Ai Takahashi, won the opening match against Modena 3-2 (25-22, 16-25, 25-17, 23-25, 15-11). Ai Takahashi was selected as the MVP of the match for her outstanding performance on both offense and defense.
To be honest, before the match started, I didn't think Padua would win. Their opponent, Modena, is a strong team that regularly makes it into the top four of the league, and is feared as one of the "BIG4" along with Civitanova, Perugia, and Trento. Their members are also full of talented players, such as France's Nugapet and Brazil's Bruno. On the other hand, Padua is mainly made up of young players and does not have a single player who can be called top class. To be honest, they are a middle to lower class team in the league, and I had the impression that they were quite far behind Modena in terms of individual abilities.
However, the interesting thing about volleyball is that strong individual players do not necessarily make a strong team. This time, Padua beat Modena because they were able to create good chemistry within the team and successfully transform the support of their home fans into strength.
Although it's all about team strength, Takahashi's individual performance on this day was nothing short of amazing. Looking at the numbers, he scored 16 points in attacks with a success rate of 571 TP3T (3 errors, 0 blocks), and a serve receive success rate of 691 TP3T, both of which were undoubtedly high. In particular, his spikes were often successful, landing in the far corners of zone 5. The ball's trajectory was high, making it hard for the blocker to touch, and it's not surprising that the receiver would judge it to be out. There's no way he could catch it. And his jump was high. He had an incredible sense of leaping.
He also served well, and although he didn't have any aces, he managed to get many consecutive breaks by varying the pace. In particular, it's no exaggeration to say that Takahashi's serve decided the game in the fifth set. He also showed great digs at key points, saving the team from trouble many times.
There were still some wasteful moments, such as the setter's tosses sometimes not being on point or the spikers being slow to prepare for fake sets, but these are team issues and will surely be improved in the future.
Overall, Takahashi's performance on this day was worthy of being the MVP, no matter who saw it! Congratulations!!
Besides Takahashi, Crosart in the middle made six blocks by himself, and Petkovic in the opposite position saved us from a pinch by scoring many high balls at crucial moments. It's still early in the season and we're a young team, so our performance may fluctuate a lot, but we'd like to maintain our high performance and make it into the top eight in the first half of the season to qualify for the Coppa Italia.
I have no doubt that Takahashi will continue to lead the Padova team as a central player, so I will continue to support him!
Also, I personally like the emerald green color of this season's Padua uniform, so my desire to buy one has really increased (laughs).
On the other hand, it was a painful defeat for Modena, who was an inferior opponent and a must-win for them.
Modena's key player going forward is Rinaldi. Like Takahashi, he is a 21-year-old outside hitter, and in this match he had three service aces, which was a wonder for the Padua receivers, but the final set was saved by his consecutive spike errors. He has had many successes with the under-19 national team and his potential is well-known, so if he continues to grow, the team's level will improve significantly. He's also very handsome, so if he gets more exposure, he'll probably become popular in Japan too (lol).
I'm also looking forward to a rematch between these two handsome 21-year-olds in the second half of the league (laughs).
Photo: Pallavolo Padova
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