In the first leg of the Confederation of European Volleyball (CEV) Challenge Cup final, Monza, the team Takahashi Ai plays for, played against Warsaw (Poland) on Wednesday, February 21st local time, and lost 1-3 (18-25, 25-21, 18-25, 19-25).
After the match, I spoke with Rinus Weber (Germany), who was a teammate of Takahashi and Lepke at Monza in Padova two seasons ago.
Post-match interview with Rinus Weber
T: How do you feel looking back on the match?
Weber: I'm very happy and honestly relieved. I was told yesterday that I would be in the starting lineup. The reason was that our first opposite Bo Won-Ju was not feeling well and the team wanted to give him time to recover. He still wasn't feeling well today. I knew it would be difficult to start the game, so of course I was a bit nervous and I felt a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
But in the end, we played great as a team. It was a great team effort. I'm really proud of my teammates. And I think this result is a reflection of all the hard work we've done. We've played so many games and practiced so hard up until now. And I think we got this result today. But I don't know yet about next week (the second leg). We'll practice again and hope to get the trophy next week, but I won't say any more for now.
T: Did you enjoy playing against your former teammates?
Weber: There's a funny story about that, I met Ai in the bathroom during a game (laughs). I thought, "OK, but now's not the time to talk," (and we didn't say anything). But now we can talk in front of the locker room. I'm very happy to see them again, and especially Eric (Löpke). We share great memories. I'm very happy to see them again and compete at a higher level. It's always good to see friends.
Photo: Author
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