Last weekend, on September 21st and 22nd, in the Serie A Supercopa held in Florence, Italy, Perugia, the team of Japanese player Ishikawa Yuki, defeated Trento 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 15-25, 25-17, 15-9) to win the championship. Ishikawa, who scored 20 points in the final, the most on his team, was also selected as the tournament MVP.
Detailed stats for the match are here:
https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/superlega/2024-2025/supercoppa/schedule/21061/#teamstats
The Supercoppa is a tournament in which four teams compete based on their results from the previous season. It is held every year before the league season begins, and is a tournament that can be said to predict the outcome of the season. This year, four teams participated: Perugia (last season's league winner and Coppa Italia winner), Monza (last season's league runner-up and Coppa Italia runner-up), Trento (last season's regular season 1st place), and Piacenza (last season's regular season 3rd place).
It was within the realm of expectation that Perugia, who achieved four titles last season (league, Coppa, Supercoppa and World Club Championship) and had little turnover in their players, would win the championship, but I was honestly surprised that Ishikawa was selected as MVP.
Ishikawa joined Perugia this season, but Perugia has two outside hitters, Semeniuk (Poland) and Plotnicki (Ukraine), who were in the starting lineup last season, and they are still on the team this year, so Ishikawa thought it would be difficult to take a starting position from them right away. In fact, Ishikawa started on the bench in the semi-finals of this Supercoppa.
However, in the middle of the first set, Ishikawa took over for Plotnicki, who was not doing well, and showed stable performance on both offense and defense, contributing to the victory with 12 points, the second highest on the team. He was then selected as a starter in the final, and won the championship and MVP with a team-high 20 points. Ishikawa was the undisputed MVP of the tournament, contributing greatly to the team's victories on both days as a game changer in the semi-finals and as the best scorer in the final.
For the past few years, he has been a regular in the starting lineup for both his club and national team, so he probably hasn't had many opportunities to step onto the court in the middle of a match. However, he didn't care about that and showed a high level of performance even though he came on as a substitute in the semi-finals, so I really take my hat off to him.
And in the final, the performance in the early part of the match was not good, but the way they stepped up their game from the 4th set onwards was amazing. Of course, there was also the setter Giannelli who changed the flow of the match by collecting the ball on the left and the pipes in the middle of the match, and there is no doubt that the victory was the team that did not give up until the end even after losing the set by a large margin of 15-25 in the 3rd set and had no other choice.
But even so, it was a big surprise to see him win the title and MVP so soon, and as a Japanese, I was once again proud of him for being a player who exceeds all expectations, as he is so close to becoming the "world's number one player" that he aims to be. The video also conveyed the feeling that he was enjoying the match. He is not the captain or the absolute ace at Perugia, so perhaps the burden has been lifted from his shoulders and he is able to enjoy volleyball more purely. I'm glad for him.
However, even though they won, Perugia lost one set to Piacenza in the semi-finals and a full set to Trento in the finals, so neither match was easy. In particular, if Trento had not made a series of mistakes in the fifth set, the match would have been uncertain until the last point. Lavia is frustrated.
Therefore, there is no doubt that this year's Italian league will be a high-level league. Even the teams that did not participate in the Supercoppa are gathering the world's best players, and the teams that have had a lot of player turnover will continue to improve their team combinations and other aspects.
Ishikawa will also continue to improve his combination with Giannelli. It may not be long before we see Giannelli hitting Ishikawa's fake set (laughs).
The Italian Superleg starts this weekend on the 28th. You can check the schedule on the official website.
https://www.legavolley.it/calendario/?idCampionato=947
This season, not only Yuki Ishikawa, but also Tatsunori Otsuka will play for Milan, and Yume Tarumi will play for Cisterna. All three players need to win not only the match but also the starting lineup battle, but Ishikawa's performance this time has given him a chance to be in the starting lineup for the opening game. However, there is still no way to feel at ease.
You can watch the Italian League on VBTV.
https://tv.volleyballworld.com/
Also, Perugia will be available to watch on FOD and Fuji TV NEXT Live Premium.
https://www.fujitv.co.jp/fujitv/news/20241157.html
The Japanese SV League will be broadcast on J SPORTS. ABEMA de J SPORTS is currently running an SV League opening campaign.
[PR]
Photo: Legavolley.it
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