In the sixth round of the second half of the Italian Men's Volleyball League, Monza, the team that Takahashi Ai plays for, played against Trentino on Saturday, January 27th (local time) and lost 0-3 (12-25, 17-25, 17-25). Takahashi Ai was benched due to injury.
First set starting lineup
Monza
OH: Marr (Canada), Lepke (Canada)
MB: Galassi (Italy), Di Martino (Italy)
OP: Schwartz (Canada)
S: Cachopa (Brazil)
L: Gazzini (Italy)
Trentino
OH: Micheletto (Italy), Lavia (Italy)
MB: Kozamelnik (Slovenia), Podrascanin (Serbia)
OP: Lihiritzki (Luxembourg)
S: Sbertori (Italy)
L: Laurenzano (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
Match Report
In the first set, Trentino took a 3-8 lead after breaking the serve with spikes and aces from OH Micheletto. In the middle of the set, Trentino got four consecutive breaks with a service ace from OP Lihilicki, widening the gap to 9-17. Finally, Trentino won the first set by a large margin, 12-25, with a spike from OH Lavia and a service ace from Sbertori.
In the second set, Trentino took the lead 6-9 with OP Lihilicki's spikes and MB Kozamelnik's blocks. Trentino then widened the gap to 9-16 with OH Lavia's spikes. Monza also broke with OH Lepki's spikes, but Trentino's momentum continued with OH Lavia's service ace to make it 14-22. OH Micheletto scored a spike to end the set at 17-25, and Trentino took the set.
In the third set, Monza was able to hang on at 6-6 with OP Schwartz's spikes, but OP Schwartz made consecutive attack mistakes, allowing Trentino to take the lead at 6-10. After that, Trentino continued to break consistently with OH Michelet's blocks, widening his lead to 9-16. Monza broke with OH Marr's spikes and narrowed the gap to 14-19, but it was far from a reversal. At the end, Trentino took the set with a service ace from OH Micheletto, making it 17-25.
Monza lost to Trentino 0-3.
MVP: OH Alessandro Micheletto 18 points (2 serves, 2 blocks) Attack efficiency rate 57.141 TP3T
This means Monza maintains its 7th place position with a total record of 8 wins, 9 losses and 25 points.
The next match will be against Galatasaray Istanbul (Turkey) in the Challenge Cup semi-final second leg at 1:00 am on Tuesday, February 6th (Japan time).
Italian League Website: https://www.legavolley.it/
Distribution (VBTV, paid): https://www.volleyballworld.tv/home
Toshiki's comment
It was a spectacular defeat. They were beaten even worse than Milan was before the Coppa Italia.
The main factor was clearly the serve and serve receive.
Trentino had 7 service aces and a serve receive success rate of 59%, while Monza had 0 service aces and a serve receive success rate of 351 TP3T.
We can't win like this.
I also think that the drivers were much more tired in Monza than they were in Trentino.
This was Trentino's first match since losing to Monza in the Coppa Italia semi-final, but Monza had played two more matches in the meantime, the Coppa Italia final and the Challenge Cup semi-final, with the same members, so it is likely they were not able to recover.
It was a spectacular defeat, but there's nothing we can do about it. I think it was good that the match was against Trentino, who are in the top spot. In these conditions, we could have lost a point even if we had played against a lower-ranked team, so I think it's good that we were able to avoid that.
The most important thing right now is to win two sets in the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi-finals and advance to the finals.
It's a tough schedule, but I hope they can do their best without causing any more dropouts.
Photo: volleyball.it
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