Will Nishida’s furious comeback save Vibo Valentia?

While fans are asking themselves whether Yuji Nishida’s furious comeback from injury will continue and help save his Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia from relegation, the Japanese international and his teammates are set to travel to Vero Volley Monza for a match at 18:00 local time on Saturday. Sunday's programme includes another four SuperLega Credem Banca encounters, all available live and on demand on Volleyball TV.

The Japanese opposite, who turned 22 some 20 days ago, is in his first season in the Italian league. He quickly found his place in the Tonno Callipo line-up and despite his relatively modest height (1.86m) started hammering away those spikes and aces... Until November 21, when Nishida sustained a calf injury during the second set of a home game against Cucine Lube Civitanova, which forced him to sit out the next few weeks.

Tonno Callipo lost that match to Lube. In Nishida’s absence, they followed up with a 1-5 win-loss run, the only victory coming after a five-set battle with Kioene Padua, and quickly dropped to the next-to-last 12th place in the standings, below the relegation line. Just as quickly - after he returned to the courts in mid-January - the skies over Vibo Valentia brightened up...

In the second match after his recovery, Nishida produced a fantastic 28 points towards a four-set victory at Consar RCM Ravenna. Two games later, he topped that, firing eight aces towards a 29-point tally in a four-set win over Gioiella Prisma Taranto. In each of the next two matches, the Japanese striker delivered 19 points, also acing away with three direct serving points towards last weekend’s shutout of Verona Volley and another five earlier this week in a narrow five-set loss at home to Top Volley Cisterna. Overall, with three wins and three defeats since Yuji’s return, the team’s record looks much improved.

Tonno Callipo are still in 12th place, but now the prospects of avoiding relegation seem more likely for the team from Vibo Valentia as the distance between them and the eighth place is only three points, and they have a game in hand. So the question whether thirsty Nishida will continue to lead his squad on the way out of the twilight zone may start finding some clarity as soon as this Saturday.

However, the trip to Monza will be far from easy. Vero Volley are currently on a five-game winning streak between the SuperLega and the CEV Cup and stand fifth in the table on 31 points. They most recently shut out Consar RCM Ravenna on Wednesday with Bulgarian middle Aleks Grozdanov leading his team with 14 points, including four kill blocks.

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