On Sunday, December 15th local time, in the first round of the second half of the Italian Superlegaga, Perugia, the team played by Ishikawa Yuki, who finished the first half of the season in first place without a loss, will face Verona, who are in fourth place.
Ishikawa Yuki started on the bench again that day.
In the first set, Perugia scored a high percentage of their attacks, including from OH Plotnicki, and also scored points with their serves and blocks to take a comfortable lead 25-19.
In the second set, Verona's OH Javoronok was injured early on, but OH Sani, who replaced him, scored with serves and blocks to turn the game around. After that, Perugia caught up with OH Plotnicki's aces, but Verona took the set 23-25 with OH Mozic's attacks.
In the third set, both teams were trading serves, but Perugia won with two service aces from OH Plotnicki, and with good attacks from OP Ventala, they took the set 25-20.
In the fourth set, Verona extended their lead from the beginning with a block from MB Dzinger, and continued to score with attacks from OH Mozic and OP Keita. Perugia made a late comeback with a service ace from OH Plotnicki, but Verona held on to win 22-25.
In the fifth set, OH Plotnicki started off with two consecutive service aces, and Perugia continued to score points with spikes and blocks from OH Plotnicki and spikes from OH Ishikawa, who came on as a substitute, to win the set 15-7 and 3-2.
Yuki Ishikawa came on as a substitute in the second and fourth sets, and was used as a starter in the fifth set. Although he only scored four points, he contributed to the full-set victory with a high success rate of attack without any losses and aggressive serves. On the other hand, his serve reception was not very good, although he did not lose any points, and he was replaced by OH Semeniuk after serving in the fifth set. This is thought to be one of the reasons why he cannot establish himself as a starter.
In any case, this match was a Plotnicki fest. He had 6 service aces, 4 blocks, and 17 attacking points, scoring 27 points, the most for both teams. In particular, his two consecutive service aces at the start of the fifth set swung the flow of the match in Perugia's favor. In this regard, coach Lorenzetti's decision to make him the first server was also excellent. In addition, although he lost two points, his serve reception success rate was very high at 631 TP3T, and it can be said that he also made a great contribution to the defense.
He won the MVP award following his win in the previous match against Piacenza. Perugia has a fierce competition for the starting outside hitter position with Ishikawa and Semeniuk, but it seems that Plotnicki has been a cut above the rest recently.
Verona, on the other hand, was very close. As was the case in the previous full set match against Piacenza, the final game was decided by how well the serve could be hit and how well the serve could be received. However, I was personally happy to see OH Mozic in good health.

PERUGIA - VERONA
3-2(25-19, 25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 15-7)
Perugia
Starting line-up: OP Ventala (17), OH Semeniuk (10), MB Rosell (7), S Gianelli (3), OH Plotnicki (27), MB Sole (8), L Korati
Substitutes: L Piccinelli, OH Cianciota, OP Herrera (2), OH Ishikawa (4).
Verona
Starting line-up: S. Abaev (2), OH. Dzvoronok (1), MB. Dzinger (8), OP. Keita (19), OH. Mozic (26), MB. Cortesia (6), L. D'Amico
Substitutes: OH Chevalier, OH Sani (8), OP Jensen (3), S Spirito
MVP: OH Oleh Plotnicki
27 points (6 on serves, 4 on blocks), attack effectiveness rate 34.29%
OH Ishikawa Yuki
Substitute appearance: 4 goals, attacking efficiency rate 571 TP 3T
Detailed match stats here:
https://www.legavolley.it/match/38270
Next Round
Italian League
Second half of the season
December 22nd (Sun) 26:00~ vs Padova
Distribution: VBTV (https://subscribe.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv1), FOD
European Champions League
Fourth Group Match
December 19th (Thursday) 28:00 vs Saint-Nazaire (France)
Distribution: EurovolleyTV (https://www.eurovolley.tv/)
Photo: legavolley.it