In the 9th round of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Monza at home on Sunday, November 27th local time, and lost in straight sets 0-3 (16-25, 23-25, 21-25).
Takahashi Ai started in this match and scored 8 points.
First set starting lineup
Padua
OH: Takahashi, De Smet (Belgium)
MB: Volpato (Italy), Crosato (Italy)
OP: Petkovic (Serbia)
S: Saitta (Italy)
L: Zenger (Germany)
Monza
OH: Marr (Canada), Dawyskiba (Belarus)
MB: Galassi (Italy), Beretta (Italy)
OP: Glozel (Germany)
S: Zimmermann (Germany)
L: Federici (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, Padova's OP Petkovic scored consecutive spikes from the beginning to take a 3-1 lead, but when OH Marr was serving, Petkovic missed two consecutive spikes from the left in an S1 rotation, allowing Monza to quickly turn the game around to 6-7.
Padua managed to regain the lead at 8-7 with an ace from OH De Smet, but Monza also had an ace from S Zimmermann, a block and ace from MB Galassi to stop Takahashi, and another block from OH Marr to stop Petkovic, and they quickly extended their lead to 11-16 in the middle of the game.
After that, Padua struggled to get a single side out, and instead OH Marr and OP Glozer's spikes allowed them to widen the gap in points. In the end, OP Glozer's spike scored a sure shot, and Monza took the set 16-25.
In the second set, Padova made a series of mistakes in the early stages, and then OP Petkovic was blocked by OH Dawiskiva, giving Monza a 4-8 lead.
From there, Padua got a side-out with a spike from Takahashi, but Petkovic and Takahashi were caught in succession by blocks from Monza's MB Galassi, widening the gap to 8-15.
Padova then scored three consecutive points with a block from substitute MB Canella to make the score 11-15, but Monza then got secure side-outs with spikes from OP Grozelle, preventing them from catching up any further.
However, OH De Smet scored a spike from MB Crosart's serve to put Padova up 19-21, and then on Saitta's next serve, De Smet scored a block to stop the opponent's Grozelle, making it 21-23. Takahashi then scored a straight shot from a pass from De Smet's serve to finally make it 23-23 in the final stages of the match.
However, that was the end of the counterattack, and shortly afterwards Monza got a side out with Grozelle, and finally OP Petkovic missed his spike for the fourth time after missing it three times during the rally, and Monza took the set 23-25.
In the third set, Takahashi's spike was blocked early by MB Galassi, but OP Petkovic also had an ace and the game was close at 6-5 in the early stages. However, OP Petkovic was then caught in a block by OH Daviskiba, and then OH De Smet made a spike error, allowing Monza to take the lead at 6-8.
After that, Padova temporarily took the lead to 11-10 with spikes from Takahashi and Petkovic, and an ace, but Monza scored block points to extend their lead again to 13-16.
Padua was struggling as they were unable to break down their opponents with their serves and their spikes were hard to land.
Although Monza made some mistakes, he immediately made up for them with a break point, so the gap in points did not narrow.
In the end, Takahashi broke once, but his serve went out for the second time, giving Monza the set at 21-25, and Padua lost the match in straight sets.
MVP: S Jan Zimmermann
Takahashi scored 8 points, with a spike success rate of 361 TP3T and a serve receive success rate of 361 TP3T.
With this result, Padua's overall record is 3 wins, 5 losses and 6 points, putting them in provisional 11th place.
Next week, they will play away against third-placed Trento on Saturday, December 3rd at 18:00 local time (2:00 Japan time).
Thoughts etc.
Well, last week's game was terrible, but this game was also tough.
First of all, the poor performance of Petkovic, our main source of goals, was a blow.
The attack success rate is only 26%, and with a missed spike worth 4 points and a block being received worth 5 points, the attack effectiveness rate is almost zero.
It is clear that the marking was quite strict.
Furthermore, Takahashi's attack success rate was 361 TP3T, with 1 mistake and 4 blocks received, so we have to say these are pretty harsh numbers.
In last week's match against Verona, it seemed like they were dominated by the opponent's serves, but I don't think Padua's serve reception in this match was bad.
However, we were not able to attack much with our serves, and we made noticeable serve errors at crucial times (especially towards the end of the second set).
First of all, my spikes were not on point at all.
In each set, the attack success rate was in the 30% range, which was a fairly low 33% for the entire match.
That's not how you win volleyball.
Even in the women's V League, where attack success rates are generally low, I don't think they could win with these numbers.
One reason for this is thought to be that OP Petkovic, who has had consistent numbers even in losing games up until now, was thoroughly suppressed, but I think improvement in this area will be really important.
Anyway, Monza's block defense was excellent.
Takahashi needs to reduce the number of blocks he gets.
There were many scenes where Galassi's mid-range shots were stopped, so I think the pattern was that they would aim for a shot thinking there was no blocker, but then a blocker would suddenly appear and shut them down.We need to get used to this and make our attacking choices with this in mind.
This is really the area in the Italian league where I want to see the most growth.
Another thing that bothered me was that Saitta's tosses ended up going entirely to Petkovic, even when Petkovic was bad.
I think it would be good to use lefts and pipes more.
I hope that when we are in a bad flow, we will be able to use more options other than Petkovic and make them work more effectively.
Following this defeat, Padova's chances of participating in the Coppa Italia (8th place or higher at the end of the first half) became hopeless.
However, there are still three games left until the halfway point, so I hope they will do their best and try to get three points in each one.
First up is the match against Trento next week.
Hit with the serve and endure with the reception to win.
looking forward to it.
Forza ragazzi!!! (Good luck everyone!!!)
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A
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