In the sixth round of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Milan, the team Ishikawa Yuki plays for, will face league leaders Perugia away on Sunday, November 6th local time.
Milan lost the match in straight sets 0-3 (24-26, 22-25, 18-25).
Yuki Ishikawa started for the first time in four games and scored seven points.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Ishikawa, Ebadipour (Iran)
MB: Vitelli (Italy), Rosell (Argentina)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Perugia
OH: Semeniuk (Poland), Plotnicki (Ukraine)
MB: Sole (Argentina), Filavio (Brazil)
OP: Lihilicki (Luxembourg/Italy)
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
The first set started with Ishikawa serving.
Milan struggled with Perugia's serves from the beginning, falling behind 3-7 with two consecutive aces from OH Plotnicki.
However, Perugia made a series of mistakes and MB Vitelli scored a quick goal at a key moment, allowing Milan to tie the score at 12-12.
From there, the game became a battle for points, with both OPs, Patry and Lihiritzki, fighting until the score was 24-24, with neither side giving in and going into deuce.
However, OH Semeniuk quickly got a side out to make the score 24-25, and finally Ishikawa's spike went out, giving Perugia the lead in the set 24-26.
The second set was a close one until the middle, with both teams scoring points mainly in the opening round, resulting in a score of 16-17.
However, Milan's OP Patri and MB Rosell were blocked in succession, allowing Perugia to extend their lead to 16-20.
Milano closed the gap to within one point at 22-23 thanks to a block from Pollo and some opponent mistakes, but they were unable to capitalize on their subsequent chances and lost the set 22-25.
In the third set, Perugia made frequent use of MB Flavio's powerful quick kicks to score points, while Milan, who had no choice but to fight back, responded with successive sharp spikes from Ishikawa from the early stages, and the game was close until the middle of the set, with the score at 13-13.
However, Milan continued to make touch net mistakes, widening the gap to 14-17, and then a service ace from OH Semeniuk put Perugia at 16-21 with a five-point lead heading into the end of the set.
Milan tried to catch up, but couldn't get a break from Perugia.
On the other hand, OP Lihilicki scored a service ace off Ishikawa's receive, putting Perugia at match point at 18-24, and finally setter Gianelli scored two attacks to make it 18-25, and Milan lost to Perugia in straight sets 0-3.
The MVP was OP Lihilicki of Perugia, who scored 17 points (1 serve and 2 blocks).
Ishikawa Yuki scored 7 points, with an attack success rate of 351 TP3T and a serve receive success rate of 231 TP3T, which were not great numbers.
Milan is now in 8th place with 3 wins, 3 losses and 7 points.
Next week, they will play away against Padova, the team Takahashi Ai plays for, on Sunday, November 13th at 15:30 local time (23:30 Japan time).
Thoughts etc.
Congratulations to Ishikawa on returning to the starting lineup!!
First of all, this was pure joy!
In the first and second sets, she didn't look to be in good form, struggling with both attack and reception, but in the third set, she was on a roll, delivering some amazing cross shots from both sides!!
In fact, of the seven points he scored in this match, five came in the third set.
In particular, his spikes from the right side during the S1 rotation were so sharp that I was shaking (lol).
She was really passionate and you could tell even through the screen that she had really stepped up her game at this point, and I was cheering her on with tingling excitement, thinking "This is it! This is the Ishikawa Yuki I wanted to see!!" (laughs).
Also, MB Vitelli did a great job at key moments in this match.
The numbers also showed an impressive performance, with 2 aces, 2 blocks, and an attack success rate of 701 TP and 3 T!
Please note that although he is a very reliable guy, he is actually one year younger than Ishikawa (lol).
But the opponent was Perugia, who were in first place.
They are the only team undefeated this season and are the strongest team, having recently won the Supercoppa (a tournament between the top four teams from the previous season's league).
The team's star player is captain OH Leon (Poland), who is said to be the best player in the world, but he did not play in this match.
Nevertheless, reserve player OH Plotnicki is also the captain of the Ukrainian national team and an incredible player who was the driving force behind Ukraine's run to the quarterfinals at this year's World Championships, while his opposite number, Semeniuk, is a Polish player who was named MVP of last season's European Champions League.
Setter Giannelli is also the captain of the Italian national team and was the MVP of this year's World Championships.
As you can see, Perugia has impressive players in every position, including the reserves, and is the best in terms of player depth this season, making them a galactic army in the world of volleyball!!
However, Padua had won one set against this team the other day, so I was hoping Milan would try and win one as well, but it wasn't that easy...
In this match, we were particularly dominated by the serves of Perugia's two overhands and the spikes of OP Lihiricki, who also won the MVP award.
Good luck Milan, first of all serve and then receive the serve!
If this keeps up, Ai Takahashi will be able to easily return my serve in next week's match against Padua! And Pekovic will get an ace!
I'm really looking forward to the Japanese showdown next week!!!
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A
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