In the Coppa Italia final of the Italian men's volleyball league, Monza, the team Takahashi Ai plays for, faced Perugia on Sunday, January 28th local time, and lost 1-3 (25-22, 21-25, 15-25, 23-25).
After the game, we spoke with Monza's outside hitter, Eric Roepke (Canada).
T: How were these past two days?
Lepke: It was a crazy weekend. I'm not used to playing two days in a row, and it's very tiring at this level. But I'm really proud of my guys for giving it their all the time. Especially the last set of the final, the third set before that was really bad, but in the fourth set we were able to come back to our best. I'm really happy that we were able to keep fighting until the end.
T: With Takahashi out due to injury and no one to replace him, you must have been under a lot of pressure. How did you feel?
Lepke: Yeah, it was weird. We had very few substitutes and it was still weird not having Ai. I feel really bad for him. I don't think he's had an injury like this before. I hope he gets better as soon as possible. I think he'll be back soon.
T: Still, I think your performance this time was amazing.
Lepke: Thank you. Of course I was very happy to have the opportunity to play here, so I gave it my all and did my best.
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
Photo: volleyball.it, author
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