Serie A1
Round 18
There are only five games left to the end of the regular season and the fight for the best playoffs spots is getting fiercer. Two teams right into it will open up this 18th round on Saturday: Modena (5th) and Perugia (6th). A crucial game as a place in the top 6 means direct qualification for the quarter-finals without having to play the 8th of finals. We will have to wait till Sunday for the clash of the weekend: Macerata versus Trento with the first place at stake. These are the two best teams in the league right now, the ones that have taken the latest trophies, no wonder that it’s been sold out for days.
Serie A1 round 18
Saturday February 9 at 5.30pm
Casa Modena – Sir Safety Perugia Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Rapisarda-Tanasi)
Sunday February 10 at 5.30pm
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Itas Diatec Trentino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Boris-Castagna)
Sunday February 10 at 6pm
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on Sportube.tv
(Sampaolo-Saltalippi F.)
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Marmi Lanza Verona
(Pasquali-Vagni)
Andreoli Latina – CMC Ravenna
(Genna-Simbari)
Altotevere San Giustino – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
(Gnani-Sobrero)
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 41, Itas Diatec Trentino 40, Copra Elior Piacenza 37, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 32, Casa Modena 30, Sir Safety Perugia 27, Andreoli Latina 25, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 23, BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte 20, Altotevere San Giustino 16, Marmi Lanza Verona 8, CMC Ravenna 7
Casa Modena – Sir Safety Perugia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Perugia)
Lorenzo Tubertini (Ass.coach Casa Modena): “We have worked well in the past two weeks. Perugia plays top quality volleyball, they have two experienced spikers that are tough to handle and they have a pair of setter-outside hitter that know each other by heart as they earned promotion from the A2 together last year. Perugia is a team that gets the best out of its players. We’re expecting a very tough game, this will be a good test to try to get better. We’ll need to be extremely patient, maintain a high level of play and try to influence the game with our serve”.
Carmine Fontana (Ass.coach Sir Safety Perugia): “Our game against Modena was one of our best this season so they will be well up for it. They’ve been doing well of late, with Celitans as their main finisher, but I have to say that the two spikers in position 4 are playing very well too, and Baranowicz always brings his fast-paced touch to the attack. If you add to all this the atmosphere there is in Modena, you can clearly see how tough that is for us. But I think we will be as motivated as them. It’s true we have our physical problems which does not allow us to train well, but that is normal at this point of the season. These are the moments you must learn to suffer, play each point with focus and will, give your best and then see what happens. Last Sunday in Macerata, we really liked the beginning of the game, but not the way the third set ended, we are certain the boys will react, they will not let us down mentally when there will be some difficult moments to face”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Itas Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 39 (23-16 Trento)
Marko Podrascanin (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “It’s always an important game against Trento no matter what, but this time it could give us a good advantage on them in the table. I expect it to be another very tight contest, details will make the difference again. Serving and blocking will be the area in which we’ll need to be at our best to make it hard for them. Hopefully, we’ll make the court advantage count. There will be a great atmosphere in the Palafontescodella arena, and we’ll do our best to do well in front of our supporters”.
Osmany Juantorena (Itas Diatec Trentino): “There are still a lot of games to be played, five, including the one we’ll play this weekend, but it is undeniable that it could be a key fixture in Macerata. More for us than them because they are one point ahead of us and they will be at home. A victory would not only be crucial for the points there are at stake but also for the psychological aspect. We’ve been knocked out of the Champions League and now we need a big result to get going and forget about the disappointment of the golden set against Dinamo Moscow. The league is all we have left until the end of the season, we had therefore time to prepare this encounter, we are convinced that if we want to go far we have to win games like these. We will give everything we have”.
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte – Copra Elior Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (2-1 Piacenza)
Pino Lorizio (Ass.coach BCC–NEP Castellana Grotte): “Extremely tough game against Piacenza, a top quality team. If we play with the same fighting spirit seen in the last three weeks, it could be tight. It all depends on ourselves”.
Luca Monti (coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “Everybody has to be focused in order to keep the positive run that began against Vibo going. We need the same attitude, same mentality that we’ve had in the last three rounds. Obviously, the long trips we have in the Challenge Cup are an important factor, but we have to keep the two competitions apart. The game in Minsk was certainly not a test for this fixture against Castellana Grotte”.
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Marmi Lanza Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 21 (15-6 Cuneo)
Dore Della Lunga (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We have to forget about Wednesday’s game and focus on Sunday’s. We have an immediate opportunity to bounce back. Verona is going through tough times, and they will play without any pressure. We are favorite, we’ll play all out, hitting the serve hard. Even if we had ups and downs in Piacenza, we had done well to stay close. We have to be focused at all time, even when we don’t play at our best. We were on court without giving the impression that we wanted to turn things around. From Sunday we have to play again as we did in January, when we began to use our new method. It’s inevitable that our minds could go towards the Champions League tie because this will be an extremely important game. The game we’ll play at home against Macerata could be a new beginning for us. But we have to think about Verona first: let’s give it our best, play one game at a time, and find a good spirit to face the future games”.
Bruno Bagnoli (Coach Marmi Lanza Verona): “We have seen some nice improvement from our Under 23 in recent months and we’re hoping to see some more in Cuneo. We know it will be an incredibly hard game, Cuneo is a very strong team, they have so much more experience than us. But we’re motivated, we’ll give it our best shot, without any pressure, focused on our own abilities”.
Andreoli Latina – CMC Ravenna
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (2-1 Ravenna)
Jeroen Rauwerdink (Andreoli Latina): “An important game for us. Three points would get us in the chase for sixth place, which is synonymous of a direct qualification for the playoffs quarter-finals. It will be even more important to find our rhythm again and confidence before Wednesday’s Cev Cup game”.
Mauro Fresa (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’ll try our best in Latina, we had played a good game in the first meeting, we went very close to the tie-break. Obviously this will not be an easy game, especially considering that we’re away from home. The new target of the club is to avoid the last position, and to achieve this we’ll need focus and consistency. The only player doubtful for the game is Radunovic, who’s hurt his ankle again”.
Altotevere San Giustino – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Vibo Valentia)
Marco Fenoglio (coach Altotevere San Giustino): “This will be a difficult and tight game. We’ll have to fight for every point during the whole game. They will play with anger, they have top quality players, who can change the course of a game at any time. We should not be deceived by the recent results, this will be a tough game, anything could happen, we’ll need maximum focus. You cannot afford to be distracted in these kind of games. Having said that, we have to play without fear. We have proved of late that we could give a game to many A1 team, even top quality ones, we just have to put in practice all the good things done in training, stay composed and believe in ourselves, if we do so the results will come. We are a good team, a solid group, both physically and athletically, we can make it hard for anyone. I’m sure we’ll get some good results”.
Francesco Prestinenzi (Sport director Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “San Giustino was not rated very high initially but they became a good team that never gives up, they believe in themselves, especially at home, they make life very hard for their opponents. I think our priority must be to find our rhythm again, then we’ll think about how to contain the opponents. The team is physically in great shape, we don’t have any particular physical problems, everyone gets along, there are no problems inside the group. We just have to start playing again and especially stop being afraid to lose. We have to find our confidence, there are no worse opponent than fear, especially where there are no reasons for it to exist”.
Serie A2
Round 19
Tonazzo Padova – Vero Volley Monza. Big game in sight: Mattia Rosso and co will have a chance to leapfrog Monza in the table with a win as they stand just one point behind. Monza will try to get back on track after two consecutive losses without a point against Matera and Città di Castello.
Sidigas HS Atripalda – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora. More top quality action with the clash between two teams fighting for second place. Both could take advantage of the fact Molfetta is rested to become runner-up behind Città di Castello. Atripalda won twice against Sora, on the same 3-2 score in the league and cup.
Conad Reggio Emilia – Caffè Aiello Corigliano. Reggio Emilia had begun the second half of season with three wins on the bounce but then lost the last three. Corigliano, on the other hand, is in great shape, they have taken points in the last 5 games (4 wins and a tie-break defeat) among which there are brilliant wins over Città di Castello and Sora. Corigliano is 6 points from 4th place.
Gherardi SVI Città di Castello – Elettrosud Brolo. Città di Castello bounced back last week in Monza after conceding their first defeat of the season. They resume their run towards the A1 against a Brolo team that was the first one this season to take a point against the league leaders. Brolo has yet to win away from home this season.
Coserplast Matera – Pallavolo Loreto. Fierce game in the fight to stay up between Matera and Loreto. Loreto only got one point in this second half of the season and is bottom. Fracascia’s boys will try make the most of Pinerua’s absence for Matera.
B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena – Sieco Service Ortona. Potenza Picena will try to add to the 6 points taken in this second half of the season as they try to secure their ticket in the division for n
