Serie A1
Round 17
Volleyball at its best will not go amiss in the first weekend of February with the action starting on Saturday with Verona versus San Giustino. The hosts are desperate to get things going after 11 games without a win, and not even a set in the last three games. Super Saturday night game with Trento against Latina, while Sunday’s attention will turn to the match between Piacenza and Cuneo. The third place is at stake.
Serie A1 round 17
Saturday February 2 at 5.30pm
Marmi Lanza Verona – Altotevere San Giustino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(La Micela-Prandi)
Saturday February 2 at 8.30pm
Itas Diatec Trentino – Andreoli Latina Live on Sportube.tv
(Frapiccini-Satanassi)
Sunday February 3 at 5.30pm
Copra Elior Piacenza – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Bartolini-Padoan)
Sunday February 3 at 6pm
Sir Safety Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata Live on Sportube.tv
(Braico-Cipolla)
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte
(Boris-Balboni)
A Forlì: CMC Ravenna – Casa Modena
(Zucca-Castagna)
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 38, Itas Diatec Trentino 37, Copra Elior Piacenza 34, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 32, Casa Modena 27, Sir Safety Perugia 27, Andreoli Latina 25, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 23, BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte 17, Altotevere San Giustino 13, Marmi Lanza Verona 8, CMC Ravenna 7
Marmi Lanza Verona – Altotevere San Giustino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (San Giustino)
Bruno Bagnoli (coach Marmi Lanza Verona): “We’ve been preparing well for this game which will be like a final for us. Only Rak (knee) is doubtful, we need this win, but San Giustino is a balanced team with fighting spirit, they’re stronger than in our first meeting now they’ve added Maric. We’re calling on our superb fans to keep supporting us and creating a marvelous atmosphere”.
Andrea Sartoretti (Sport director Altotevere San Giustino): “Thanks to our superb victory in the derby, we have a good margin on the 11th position. Verona is a direct opponent for a playoffs spot. It’s a kind of in-or-out game for them, they will put us under pressure, and they have the means and players to make it hard for us. We’ll need to play as well as against Perugia, when we proved we made a step forward in the mental aspect. Verona will have everybody, our opponents have always had all their players available. I expect a much different game than the first meeting, they know we’re better than them right now, and ahead in the table, but they’ll be ready to play. We’ll have to keep believing in ourselves, you don’t beat the sixth in the table by chance, you need quality, character, and team play”.
Itas Diatec Trentino – Andreoli Latina
PAST ENCOUNTER: 23 (16-7 Trento)
Massimo Colaci (Itas Diatec Trentino): “Latina is a top quality team, they further strengthened their squad after last year’s playoff semi-final, and they showed all their ability this season, testimony the victory over Macerata last week and the qualification for the Cev Cup semi-finals. This will definitely be a tough game, besides they all hit their serve hard against us to try to make it difficult for us. We’ve had kind of a strange patch lately: we were not used to lose that many games in such a short space of time, we have to get back on track. The Latina game could be the perfect opportunity to do so”.
Salvatore Rossini (Andreoli Latina): “This should be a top quality encounter, we’re facing the world champions so we have nothing to lose. We’ll try to play as well as against Macerata, playing those types of games is always exciting”.
Copra Elior Piacenza – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 29 (26-13 Cuneo)
Hristo Zlatanov (Copra Elior Piacenza): “Victorious in Trento, Cuneo will come here galvanised, but we’re full of confidence too following our come-back win in Modena. Despite last week’s bad start we managed to get the win, it would be better not to have such poor starts in the future. The positive thing is that the group, united and solid, managed to come out of this negative patch of the first set”.
Wout Wijsmans (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re going to Piacenza hoping to keep getting better and improving our game. This will be an extremely important game because they stand two points ahead in the table. If we were to win, we could go in front of them. We have to play our game, focus on one play at a time, that’s the way to keep improving”.
Sir Safety Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Macerata)
Nicola Daldello (Sir Safety Perugia): “There’s a great game on Sunday, the kind you always like to play, against the Italian champions. We’ll give it our best shot in front of our fans, and we’ll see what happens. One thing is for sure, if there is to be only just one opportunity during the game, we’ll be ready to take it on the bounce. Macerata is basically the whole Italian national team, with the two strongest middle blockers in the world and the best libero around. But I am certain that if we give 100%, we’ll be able to give them a game”.
Dragan Travica (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Definitely a tricky road game, they are well-balanced, in form and they play at home. They have top quality players like Petric, the danger number one, and Vujevic, who has a lot of experience. It’s important for us to take the three points to make up for last week’s loss in Latina, but also to get to the clash with Trento as leaders. We are confident, and the come-back of Savani in the group will be a nice extra motivation for all of us”.
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (3-2 Vibo Valentia)
Tine Urnaut (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “We found it extremely hard when we first met Castellana Grotte, we just could not get in the game. This is a strong team, well-organised, they’re playing very well right now, having won the last two games. We’ll try to play at our best and do everything possible to take points to finish as high as possible in the table”.
Alessandro Paparoni (BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte): “We cannot rest on our laurels just because we won a couple of games, we have to go to Vibo to play our game. They are a strong team, well-organised, they will do everything to win it in the heated atmosphere there is there. We have had a good training week but we know we have a good margin for improvement. We have to face this encounter with the same focus as in the last two to get a positive result”.
CMC Ravenna – Casa Modena
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (2-1 Modena)
Mauro Fresa (allenatore CMC Ravenna): “We beat Modena in our first meeting and we’ll try to make the double, but it won’t be easy because this is a great team, young but precisely trained by a coach especially good with young players. We have been having some physical problems in the squad for a while now but we trained well, a couple of times in Forlì too, we’ll try to make the breakthrough”.
Loris Manià (Casa Modena): “Another difficult game this Sunday. Useless to talk again about the first meeting, although remembering what happened can help us even more to understand how careful we’ll have to be at all time. They have two outside hitters with different characteristics (Moro and Bellei), they often switch and they can have a big impact on the game. We’ll need a good reception in order to help Baranowicz to handle things better. We have to be aggressive, be focused and be especially patient. We’re not looking at the table, not for now: we’re focusing on the daily work, and on the technical and tactical determination on every single point. We have to think one set and one point at a time”.
Serie A2
Round 18
Tonazzo Padova – Conad Reggio Emilia. Both standing in mid-table, a tight game is expected as Reggio has a chance with a win to leapfrog their opponent of the day.
Caffè Aiello Corigliano – B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena. With its new cap of giant killer (Sora and Città di Castello defeated in the past two rounds), Corigliano plays host to Potenza, who gathered a crucial win over Brolo in mid-week in the race to stay up.
Vero Volley Monza – Gherardi SVI Città di Castello. Monza’s three-game winning streak was stopped in the last round in Matera, while Città di Castello was beaten for the first time this season by Corigliano at the tie-break. The leaders will try to bounce back but it won’t be easy as only Reggio managed to win in Monza this season.
Elettrosud Brolo – Exprivia Molfetta. Brolo could not add to last Sunday’s win over Reggio Emilia in mid-week as they played Potenza. Now they need a breakthrough against an in-form Molfetta team that recently moved up to second place. And they will have to take an advantage on Sora (3rd) as the latter will be rested this weekend.
Pallavolo Loreto – Sidigas HS Atripalda. Alone at the bottom as it was rested in the last round, while Potenza and Matera won their respective games, Loreto is desperate for points against Atripalda. The latter is coming off two wins against Ortona and Padova and will have a chance to get closer to third place as Sora will not play this weekend.
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