In the third round of the second half of the Italian Women's Volleyball League, Chieri, coached by Kento Hayashi (formerly of Toyota Auto Body), played against Conegliano on Sunday, January 14th (local time) and lost 2-3 (28-26, 19-25, 25-21, 28-30, 9-15).
First set starting lineup
Kieri
OH: Kingdon (USA), Omorui (Italy)
MB: Gray (Italy), Weitzel (Germany)
OP: Globerna (Belgium)
S: Marinov (Italy)
L: Spirito (Italy)
Conegliano
OH: Plummer (USA), Lanier (USA)
MB: Rubian (Italy), Sara (Italy)
OP: Hark (Sweden)
S: Wołęsz (Poland)
L: De Gennaro (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Chieri's opponent that day was Conegliano, the current league champions who are undefeated in the Super Cup and the European Champions League this season.
On the other hand, Chieri is in 5th place in the league and is far behind the women's volleyball "BIG4" (Conegliano, Milano, Scandicci, Novara) in terms of points. Therefore, most people expected Conegliano to win without much time.
However, Chieri took the first set with a big comeback of 28-26 thanks to the efforts of the middle players, who were down by a maximum of 7 points at 13-20. The second set was taken by Conegliano with a big margin of 19-25, but in the third set, thanks to the efforts of OH Omoruyi and OH Skinner (USA), who came in as a substitute, they came back again in the final stages with a score of 25-21, putting them in a position to win the undefeated queen.
By the way, Conegliano had only played a full set once this season, but it was the first time that Chieri had lost two sets first.
In the fourth set, Conegliano was leading from the middle of the match, but once again he tied the score at 23-23 in the final minutes and took the set to deuce. He broke and had a match point at 27-26, but this time he couldn't get the last point and lost the set 28-30.
In the fifth set, Conegliano maintained the lead throughout, and Chieri was helpless as he lost the set 9-15, ultimately losing the match 2-3.
MVP: L Monica DeGennaro Serve reception success rate 28.57%
Best scorers (top three): OP Haack (28), OP Groberna (23), OH Plummer (20)
With this, Chieri now has a total record of 9 wins, 7 losses and 29 points, maintaining him in 5th place.
The next match will be against Police (Poland) in the second leg of the CEV Cup playoff on Thursday, January 18th at 26:00 Japan time.
Comments from Coach Kento Hayashi
First of all, I'm proud of our players for fighting hard against the team currently in first place despite our main players not being in the best condition, and I'd like to congratulate Imocco (Conegliano) for continuing to bounce us back.
Our serves were effective in the early stages, and we were able to keep OH Lanier in the lead and limit his opponent's side-outs, which I think was the reason for our success. In addition, OP Haak was not in good form and our opponents made a lot of errors on their serves, with nine.
Their serves started coming in from the middle of the game, making it difficult for us to manage our side-outs, but to make matters worse, the opposing team used OH Cook (formerly Robinson, USA), who was unwell, to play reception and defensively, which solved the problem.
From there, the match was a back-and-forth battle, but the opponent's excellent serves overwhelmed us and we suffered a disappointing loss with a set score of 2-3.
We are grateful to the many fans who came to the venue and that we were able to play in such a wonderful venue.
Photo: Vittorio Avondo, author
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