In the first round of the second half of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Monza, the team that Takahashi Ai plays for, played against Civitanova on Saturday, December 30th (local time) and lost 1-3 (27-25, 21-25, 22-25, 23-25). Takahashi Ai started the game and scored 7 points.
First set starting lineup
Monza
OH: Ma (Canada), Takahashi
MB: Galassi (Italy), Di Martino (Italy)
OP: Schwartz (Canada)
S: Klering (Brazil)
L: Gaggini (Italy)
Civitanova
OH: Nikolov (Italy), Yant (Cuba)
MB: Diamantini (Italy), Anzani (Italy)
OP: Laguncia (Türkiye)
S: Dececco (Argentina)
L: Barrasso (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Match Report
In the first set, Civitanova took a 2-5 lead with OH Yanto's block in the early stages, but Monza quickly caught up with OH Marr's serve at 5-5. After that, Monza continued to score points mainly with OH Marr's spikes, but Civitanova scored points with OH Yanto's spikes and other points to make it 13-13. From there, Monza scored consecutive points with OH Takahashi's spikes and other points to take a lead at 17-14, but Civitanova quickly caught up with OH Yant's service ace and other points to make it 17-17. In the final stages, Monza took a step ahead with 23-21 with S Cachopa's block, but at 24-23, OH Takahashi was caught by OP Lagunzia's block and the game went into deuce at 24-24. However, in the end, OH Takahashi scored a service ace to make it 27-25 and Monza took the set.
In the second set, Monza started off with a 3-0 lead thanks to a spike from OP Schwartz, but soon Civitanova turned the game around with a spike from OH Nikolov and other efforts to make it 3-4. Civitanova then widened the gap to 4-7 with a service ace from OH Nikolov. MB DiMartino's spike tied the score at 11-11, but Monza continued to make serve errors and Civitanova maintained their lead, advancing to 18-20. Substitute OH Lepke (Canada) then spiked to tie the score at 20-20 again, but at 21-22, OH Yount scored consecutive spikes to give Civitanova a 21-25 victory in the set.
In the third set, both players broke the other in the early stages, but the score was tied at 7-7. However, Civitanova scored five consecutive points with spikes from OH Nikolov and a service ace from OP Lagungia, widening their lead to 8-14. Civitanova then extended their lead to 12-20 with blocks from MB Diamantini. Towards the end, Monza scored breaks with blocks from MB Galassi and a service ace from OH Lepki, narrowing the gap to 20-23, but in the end, MB Galassi's serve was in error, and Civitanova took the set 22-25.
In the fourth set, OH Repki was used from the start, replacing OH Takahashi. Monza took the lead 8-6 early on, thanks to OH Repki's spikes and MB DiMartino's blocks. Civitanova turned the game around with 10-12 thanks to spikes from OH Nikolov, but Monza took the lead again with 17-16 thanks to spikes from OH Marr. Monza then took a two-point lead with consecutive spikes from OH Marr at 20-18, but OP Lagungia's spikes immediately afterwards allowed Civitanova to turn the game around again with 20-21. Then, Civitanova had a match point at 22-24 thanks to a spike from OH Zaitsev (Italy), who entered the game as a substitute, and finally OP Lagungia's spike was successful, giving Civitanova a 23-25 victory in the set.
With this result, Monza lost 1-3 to Civitanova.
MVP: OH Aleksandar Nikolov 23 points (2 serves, 3 blocks) Attack efficiency rate 39.47%
OH Ai Takahashi: 7 points (1 on serve), attack effectiveness rate 17.65%
This brings Monza's overall record to 7 wins, 5 losses and 20 points, dropping them two places to 6th place.
The next match will be against Civitanova in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals on Sunday, January 4th at 4:00am Japan time.
Comments from Ai Takahashi after the match
I think our serve was a problem in today's match. If the serve doesn't run, it won't lead to a break, and I made a lot of serve mistakes myself, so we need to improve that. Monza has the serve as a weapon, and I and Gaccio (Gaggiini) are the core of the defense in block and defense, so if that works, I think we're a strong team that can compete with any opponent.
The schedule is going to be tough from now on, but we have to perform as well as we can. I have the ability to receive and then pipe and attack quickly. Today, the (team) spike success rate was 50%, but I think we can improve the effectiveness rate even more, so I think I can improve the effectiveness of my own spikes even more while watching the opponent's blocks.
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
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Photo: legavolley.it
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