December 26th, the first day of the second half, was the day after Christmas. Five matches were originally scheduled, but two of them were postponed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Padova, with Ai Takahashi on their team, faced Civitanova. They lost in straight sets to a strong opponent. Ai Takahashi came on as a substitute in the backcourt, but did not make a significant impact.
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The skillful "Beast" Zaitsev played well. Ai Takahashi had fewer appearances.
Padova, the team Takahashi Ai belongs to, played away against Civitanova, who are in second place in the league. Civitanova lost OH Lucarelli (Brazil) in the previous match, and both of their starting OHs, along with Juan Torena (Italy), were benched. Padova wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to somehow achieve an iron-killing, but they were faced with the Italian "beast", Zaitsev.
Zaitsev had only just returned from injury this month, and on this day he played on the outside, not as an opposite, as he usually does. Perhaps due to a lack of practice in this formation, Civitanova was unable to demonstrate their true offensive power in the early stages, while Padova's opposite Weber (Germany) was in top form, scoring one goal after another and taking the lead.
However, once Civitanova's serve started to gain momentum, the momentum shifted to Civitanova. They allowed the opponent to reverse the score, and Ai Takahashi also participated to tighten the defense, but Civitanova's momentum did not stop and they took the first set. After that, Civitanova showed stable offensive power. Not only Zaitsev, but OP Garcia (Puerto Rico) and OH Yanto (Cuba) also contributed to the victory with a high attacking effectiveness rate, and they won against Padova in straight sets without any trouble.
On this day, Padova's two aces, Weber and OH Bottolo (Italy), were not bad at all, but the other outside player, Lepky (Canada), was not doing well on both offense and defense. Petrov (Bulgaria), who replaced him in the middle of the second set, was also not very good, so Lepky was back in the third set. It would be interesting if Takahashi came out in a situation like this, but regardless of his reception, he still needs to make an impact with his spikes and blocks. Well, he has only just joined the team, so I hope he will gain more trust from the coach and get more opportunities to play.
Even so, Zaitsev was amazing. I thought that Zaitsev would come out as an overtime player because Koval (Italy) would lack firepower, but even so, I was worried about the reception opposite Yant. However, when the game started, it was true that the aces each gave up one point, but they still held up well, and Zaitsev looked very stable.
It's true that Zaitsev has been seen as an opposite in recent years, but he played as an OH for Perugia, two teams ago, and won the bronze medal as an OH at the London Olympics. Moreover, he was better at receiving balls than Savani, who was on the opposite side, and seemed more skillful. He also played as number 2. I wonder when he became like a powerful gorilla (lol). Also, the tossing was done by Dececco, who was with him at Perugia, so it must have been a good fit. He was often entrusted with high sets. Of course Zaitsev as an opposite is good, but Zaitsev as a side is also good!
Results
Second half of the first section
Civitanova – Padua 3 - 0
(25-20, 25-17, 25-20)
Cisterna – Perugia 1 - 3
(27-25, 19-25, 10-25, 19-25)
Verona – Trento 3 - 2
(13-25, 29-31, 25-20, 25-10, 15-12)
Piacenza – Vibo Valentia postponed
Modena – Monza postponed
10th place Verona came back from 0-2 down to beat 4th place Trento. Bravo Mozic.
Ranking
37 12-01 38/09 Perugia
31 10-03 34/10 Civitanova
26 08-04 28/17 Trento
25 09-03 30/14 Modena
20 07-05 27/23 Monza
18 06-05 23/22 Piacenza
15 06-07 22/30 Padua (Takahashi Ai)
15 05-05 19/21 Milan (Yuki Ishikawa)
13 05-08 20/32 Verona
13 04-09 20/31 Cisterna
10 03-08 15/25 Taranto
09 03-08 14/27 Vibo Valentia (Yushi Nishida)
02 00-12 07/36 Ravenna
Next schedule
Wednesday, December 29th
20:30 Piacenza - Civitanova
20:30 Perugia - Verona
Thursday, December 30
20:30 Taranto - Ravenna
20:30 Padua - Cisterna
20:30 Milan - Trento
Italian Volleyball League Official Website
Photo: Lega Pallavolo Serie A
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