In the 8th round of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Takahashi Ai's team, Padova, played against Verona away on Monday, November 21st local time, and lost in straight sets 0-3 (21-25, 17-25, 21-25).
Takahashi Ai started on the bench for the first time this season, but scored two goals after coming on as a substitute.
First set starting lineup
Padua
OH: De Smet (Belgium), Asparuhov (Bulgaria)
MB: Volpato (Italy), Crosato (Italy)
OP: Petkovic (Serbia)
S: Saitta (Italy)
L: Zenger (Germany)
Verona
OH: Keita (Mali), Mojic (Slovenia)
MB: Cortesia (Italy), Grozdanov (Bulgaria)
OP: Sapodhukov (Russia)
S: Spirito (Italy)
L: Gaggini (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
For this match, Padua started Takahashi on the bench, taking into consideration his matchup with Verona's OP Sapodhukov (220cm).
In the first set, OH De Smet, who was selected as a starter for the match, was active from the beginning, blocking spikes and scoring service aces one after another to get off to a successful start with an 8-5 lead.
Padua was heavily targeting Verona's OH Keita with their serves and the tactic seemed to be working.
However, once a certain number of passes were made, Verona's three tall wingers, OP Sapozukov, OH Keita, and OH Mozic, all of whom are estimated to be over 370cm tall, were able to score with great precision.
Nevertheless, Padua managed to hold on as OH Asparuhov, who had been the target of the opponent's serves, held on and maintained a 14-11 lead with spikes from OP Petkovic and De Smet.
However, Verona made it 14-14 with three consecutive points, including an ace, from MB Cortesia's serve, and then Asparuhov and libero Zenger were broken from Sapozukov's serve, and they scored five consecutive points, including two service aces, to quickly turn the game around to 18-23.
Padua quickly replaced Asparuhov with Takahashi Ai in an attempt to stabilize their serve reception, but it was already too late.
When Verona had set point, relief server Gardini got back with an ace, but he made a mistake on his second serve and Verona took the first set 21-25.
In the second set, Keita's serves hit Padua Court from the beginning, and Verona took a 2-5 lead with five consecutive points, including two aces.
At one point, Padua managed to make consecutive breaks on MB Crosart's serve and temporarily took the lead to 8-7, but when the serve was handed back to Keita, he hit two more aces and Verona quickly took the lead again at 11-14 (Takahashi had been substituted for Asparuhov just before this, but he was not allowed to receive serves at all).
Afterwards, MB Grozdanov hit his fifth ace for the set, further extending Verona's lead to 12-17. Padova also looked for opportunities to counterattack, scoring points with spikes from Petkovic, but Keita held on with his serve receive and did not allow a break.
Verona then took the set 17-25 with a quick hit from MB Grozdanov.
In the third set, Padua, with no other options, started with Takahashi.
However, this time setter Spirito scored an ace with a serve between OH Asparuhov and libero Zenger, giving Verona a good start with a 0-3 lead.
Grozdanov's subsequent serve also broke Asparuhov, resulting in consecutive breaks to make the score 3-7, and Padua sent De Smet onto the court to replace him.
After this, Verona continued to get side outs with spikes from Petkovic and other plays to hang on to a score of 10-12, but then aces from Grozdanov and Sapozhukov allowed Verona to widen their lead to 12-20.
But Padua did not end there.
Takahashi scored a straight spike with a long leg from a high pass point, and then MB Canella, who came on as a substitute, scored an ace to make it 14-20. Petkovic then followed with two consecutive aces, and Padua narrowed the gap to 17-21.
After the timeout, Verona's setter Spirito took advantage of Takahashi's block and used a skillful two-fight move to get a side out, but Padua's Saitta also showed off his skills with a play near the attack line, assisting in a quick point.
And then Takahashi Ai's serve.
As the Padua supporters chanted "Go for it!", he served out a series of good serves, and Petkovic scored a point from the returned ball, successfully achieving two consecutive breaks and narrowing the gap to 20-22.
It seemed like the games would remain tied, but that was the end of Padua's counterattack.
Padua was ultimately unable to defend against Verona's high attacks from OH Keita and OP Sapodzhukov, losing the set 21-25 and suffering their first straight set loss to Verona this season.
MVP: Luca Spirito (setter)
Takahashi scored two goals in the match, with an attack success rate of 40%.
Padua now sits in 10th place with a total of 3 wins, 4 losses and 6 points.
Next week, they will play against Monza at home on Sunday, November 27th at 8:30pm local time (4:30am the next day Japan time).
Thoughts etc.
I watched and covered this match on site.
It was cold in Verona that day, but over 1,800 spectators packed into the arena.
Of course, there were Padua supporters there too.
During the warm-up, Takahashi was occasionally rubbing his hands together and looked a bit cold.
It would be interesting to see how Padova would respond to the tall Verona team, but Takahashi was not in the starting lineup!
It seems that Padua's coach, Cuttini, has prioritized the height of the block against the opponent's right-wing attacks over the stability of the serve reception.
Personally, I would have liked to see Takahashi from the start, but oh well, his serve reception will probably be terrible in this starting lineup anyway, so he'll definitely come on later (lol).
And this hunch turned out to be spot on.
It's true that their serve reception was holding up well in the early part of the first set, and OH's Asparuhov and De Smet were able to block the opponent's side spikes, so for a moment I thought "Padua's doing well!", but once their serve reception fell apart they fell apart after that...
We gave up 11 points in the third set, and 5 points off aces in the second set alone...
Moreover, rather than it being a problem with a particular server, the aces were taken by all five players except Mozic, so it was definitely a problem on the receiver's side.
In last week's match against Milan, Asparuhov was able to hold his own in the early stages, but it was extremely difficult to maintain stable serve reception throughout the entire game.
Libero Zenger has a high success rate, but I'm concerned about the number of direct points he concedes.
I think it would be a good idea to move Takahashi from his current position of 5 (OH next to the opposite) to position 2 (OH next to the setter) to increase the number of times he can receive serves in the middle.
I also get the impression that Asparuhov's success rate with light spikes during S1 rotation (when the setter is serving) is not that good.
I wonder what Director Cuttini thinks (it is my job to ask him directly on set, but I missed the opportunity as I prioritized Ai-kun too much, so I'm sorry...).
Although they lost, Petkovic had an excellent performance today with 18 points, 2 aces, 1 block, an attack success rate of 481 TP3T, 31 shots taken, and only 3 attacks conceded.
But games where we rely too much on Petkovic are not good games.
Verona was expensive for sure.
Not only the 220cm tall OP Sapozukov, but also the OH players Keita and Mozic have outstanding jumping ability, and it is impossible to count how many attacks were launched from above the Padua block during the game.
However, in this match Padua did not lose to Verona's height, but to their serves.
I think this is a point that should be kept in mind.
In the Italian League, the press boxes are usually located in the front row at the end of the court, but the press boxes at the Verona venue are located higher up on the courtside, quite a distance from the court.
Even though there aren't many fan club supporters, the Verona venue is a great place to feel the enthusiasm of the general public.
As there were fewer fans at Takahashi's stadium compared to the home stadium, it seemed like they were taking their time to deal with each one.
If you want to talk to the players more, I recommend watching an away match! (lol)
I haven't been to all of the venues, but I think I know about half of them, so please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Anyway, next up is the race at Monza.
Here too they have a super strong opposite in Glozel, but they will need to somehow hold out with their serve reception and hopefully serve in return to get at least 3 points!
Forza ragazzi!!! (Good luck everyone!!!)
Photo: Lega Pallovolo Serie A, author's photo
Here are the interviews with the players from today:
English 
Japanese