Hietanen’s absence is not a good enough alibi
The run towards a safe place in the standings comes to a stop. On a very bad day, Olio Pignatelli Isernia, better blocking and digging, has always the situation under control and does not give Mantova any chances. Diagonal player Hietanen is away with his national team but the same happened for Isernia’s libero Kangasniemi.
His replacement Spampinato did a great job and deserved the MVP award. Different story for Szabo, Hietanen’s replacement, who only managed one point in the first two sets. Not even the directorship’s change with Sbrolla for Mazzonelli and Capra replacing Szabo moving Speringo to the middle replaced by Robbiati was good enough. The determination saw in the past few matches was missing and some technical gaps came out.