T&T middle-blocker Sinead Jack-Kisal and Megabox Ondulati Del Savio Vallefoglia put up a valiant effort before going under in five sets to IL Bisonte Florence in the Italian Volleyball Federation 2021/2022 La Pallavolo Women’s Championship Serie A-1 on Sunday.
Playing at the Scandicci Sports Hall, promoted Megabox looked well set for a third win on the season when they won the first two sets in the best-of-five sets match 25-15 and 25-21.
However, IL Bisonte Florence dug deep and won the next three sets 13-25, 24-26 and 11-15 to pull off the come-from-behind win and hand Megabox a sixth defeat in eight matches to stay 12th on the 14-club table with six points, the same as Acqua & Sapone Roma Volley Club who are also 2-6, and one win more than Delta Despar Trentino, who have a 1-7 record.
Jack-Kisal and her Megabox teammates could be excused for the loss as they all seemed to be distracted by the sudden illness of their coach Fabio Bonafede when 5-1 ahead in the fourth set with his assistant Giacomo Passeri taking over proceedings.
According to Passeri, "Fabio felt ill in the interval between the third and fourth set when he returned to the bench it was evident that he was not well and that he was struggling to stand up. Then the set began and after a few points, he fell ill and collapsed to the ground. They rescued him and took him to the nearest hospital. Then it was he himself when he was a little better, who wanted to come back with us by bus ”.
President Ivano Angeli accompanied him to the emergency room of the Torre Grossa hospital, with him until the Megabox coach was discharged and accompanied to the team bus.
He added, "The hypothesis - he said - is that of a strong allergic reaction to food intolerance, but now Bonafede is better and we are all much more relieved".
The green-and-white girls reacted to the shock by continuing to fight until the last ball, reaching full success in the fourth set and eventually winning an important point both for the classification and for the morale of the group, despite the defeat.
Sylvia Nwakalor had the hot hand for the winners with a match-high 23 points while captain Indre Sorokaite got 14, Yvon Belien 13, Celine Van Gestel 12 and Amandha Sylves, ten.
For Megabox, captain Tatiana Kosheleva had a team-high 21 points, while Ana Bjelica got 16, Jack-Kisal 14, and Sonja Newcombe and Mancini, 11 each in the two hours, and 11 minutes see-saw battle.
Megabox will return to league play on Saturday against Bartoccini Fortinfissi Perugia, one of two clubs just one point above them.