Next up was the match between Civitanova and Trentino at Cisterna's home field. OH Tarumi started on the bench.
In the first set, Cisterna took the lead from the beginning with a strong serve and a high success rate of OP fall spikes, and in the final stages, OH Ramon scored consecutive aces to overwhelm Trentino with a score of 25-17. However, in the second set, Trentino's block points and Cisterna's many mistakes stood out, and Trentino took the set with a score of 20-25. In the third set, Trentino overwhelmed Cisterna with three aces from OP Lihilicki and a team attack success rate of over 80%, taking the set with a score of 14-25, putting them in a position to advance to the semi-finals.
In the 4th set, MB Kozamelnik's service ace and OH Micheletto's block gave Trentino a big lead of 1-6, but MB Mazzone's block, OP fall, and a spike from OH Tarumi, who entered the match as a substitute, helped Trentino catch up to 14-14. OH Tarumi's block then turned the game around to 18-17, but OH Micheletto's spike put Trentino back in the lead at 23-24 and gave him match point. OP fall and MB Mazzone's consecutive spikes made it 25-24, giving Cisterna a set point, but he was just one point away, and OH Tarumi's attack mistake allowed Trentino to turn the game around again, and in the end OH Tarumi's spike went out, so Trentino took the set 25-27 and won 1-3.
Tarumi entered the court midway through the fourth set and scored five points. He was instrumental in bringing the game to deuce when Cisterna was trailing by five points. However, he was unable to spike at deuce, and the last two points were both missed attacks, which was a very frustrating end. However, I think he is frustrated because he was able to perform well at that moment and was entrusted with the ball, so I hope he will turn this experience into a positive and do his best again.
I also think that this match was a good example of Cisterna's inconsistent form. In the first set, he had many service aces and few attacking mistakes, but from the second set onwards, he had fewer aces and more attacking mistakes. From the second set onwards, Trentino had only three attacking mistakes, while Cisterna had 13, giving away more than four times as many free points to his opponent. If he had been able to reduce even one attacking mistake in the fourth set, he would have been able to win the set.
In that respect, although the Trentino players were blocked, they did not lose many points due to mistakes such as going out of the attack or hitting the net, and I once again felt that this is the reason for their strength. In particular, OH Micheletto, who scored 16 points, tied for the most points on the team, and won the MVP award, really scored well at the crucial moments.
The semi-finals of the playoffs were now Trentino vs. Piacenza and Perugia vs. Civitanova. In the end, only Piacenza made it through from the lower ranks.
Unfortunately, unlike the Italian women's team, where all three teams with Japanese players advanced to the semi-finals, only Perugia, the team that Yuki Ishikawa plays for, advanced to the semi-finals in the men's team. There will also be no more Japanese showdowns in the playoffs in the future.
However, Milano and Cisterna, who lost this time, will both advance to the 5th place match for the right to play in next season's Challenge Cup, so we may see another showdown between these two grown-up Japanese classmates there.
Photo: legavolley.it
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