In the third match of the Italian Men's Volleyball League playoff final, Monza, the team Takahashi Ai plays for, faced Perugia on Thursday, April 25th local time and lost 1-3 (15-25, 18-25, 26-24, 19-25).
After the game, we spoke with Monza's Stephen Marr (outside hitter, Canada).
Post-match interview with Ma
Toshiki: How do you feel looking back on today's game?
Maher: Yes, I think we had energy on the court, but we lacked patience. Our volleyball is very fast and we use our heads a lot. We push, get rebounds, and create space. Personally, I lacked patience in my attacks. I got blocked a lot, and my spikes weren't good. We were able to fix some things during the match, but the other team was stable until the end, and we were up and down during the match. Unfortunately, we couldn't fix that.
TOSHIKI: What do you think about Takahashi's performance so far in the playoffs?
MA: In the quarterfinals against Civitanova, all of our spikers played, which allowed us to change our formation against Trentino. I think we were a little slow in the first two games of the semifinals, because the match against Trentino was very different from the match against Civitanova. But we were able to change and everyone was able to find their best rhythm and style of volleyball. The bench players also came on the court to help us.
And Ran did a very good job in this semifinal. He played great in all three games that we won. He helped me a lot with his coverage on serve receive. Sometimes he's the best scorer, and sometimes he's just playing his role, with good defense, serving and serve receive. He can play the role that's needed at that time. I think he was one of the best scorers today. That was his role today. Great teammate.
TOSHIKI: How will you prepare for Game 4 on Sunday?
Ma: I will watch the video today and see what went well and what went wrong. But I can't think about the match right now. I'll rest and try to recover.
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