Serie A1
Round 5
First mid-week round coming up before the break due to the Grand Champions Cup in Japan, in which the Italian National team will take part from November 19 to 24. Rai Sport will broadcast three games of round 5: Andreoli Latina – Exprivia Molfetta, Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Diatec Trentino, CMC Ravenna – Calzedonia Verona. Perugia vs Piacenza is another interesting contest that will be on Sportube.tv.
Serie A1 round 5
Wednesday November 13 at 8.30pm
Andreoli Latina – Exprivia Molfetta Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Pasquali-Sampaolo)
Casa Modena – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
(Sobrero-Satanassi)
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Altotevere Città di Castello
(Zucca-Cesare)
Sir Safety Perugia – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on Sportube.tv
(Cappello-Tanasi)
Thursday November 14 at 8.30pm
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Diatec Trentino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Santi-Saltalippi)
Sunday November 17 at 5.30pm
CMC Ravenna – Calzedonia Verona Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Simbari-Vagni)
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 12, Copra Elior Piacenza 8, Calzedonia Verona 7, Sir Safety Perugia 6, Diatec Trentino 6*, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 6, Exprivia Molfetta 6, Casa Modena 6, Altotevere Città di Castello 5, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 4, CMC Ravenna 3, Andreoli Latina 0*
*1 game in hand: Diatec Trentino, Andreoli Latina
Andreoli Latina – Exprivia Molfetta
Stuck at the bottom without a point, Latina will try to get its first win at home against Molfetta, who’s coming off a superb 3-0 win over Cuneo. However, Saitta and co have not played at the same level away from home so far.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Matteo Paris (Andreoli Latina): “We’re a good young team but with a tough fixture list. We have been a bit unlucky against Vibo, especially in the third set when we were ahead. We need to win and get off the mark like we did in the Challenge Cup game. We need our fans who are always important for us, hopefully there will be as many people as possible because we need their support”.
Davide Saitta (Exprivia Molfetta): “Latina is a very tough place to go to. I’ll be back in a club where I spent three years. It will be a 50-50 game, we’ll try to get points there too. We know they will be ready for the fight because they need points at all cost”.
Casa Modena – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
Modena took a point on the road against Città di Castello in the last round in spite of taking a 2-0 lead, while Vibo had a convincing win over Latina as Farina and Cisolla were back in the team.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 16 (12-4 Modena)
Angelo Lorenzetti (Coach Casa Modena): “We have to focus on ourselves more than the opponent right now. We had ten difficult days of training and that defeat in San Giustino, where we were 2-0 up. We have to get back on our feet and improve the level of our game, we need more consistency. Vibo plays good volleyball, and the addition of Farina and Cisolla brought further quality and experience”.
Pablo Damian Crer (Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “A very tough road game for us. Modena is a competitive team and when they play at home, in front of their numerous fans, they become really tough to play against. But we are extremely motivated, boosted by the home win over Latina, we’ll play without fear and hopefully, we’ll get the victory”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Altotevere Città di Castello
There’s no stopping Macerata right now, still top of the table with a hundred percent record: four wins in as many games and a big one last week over Trento. They’re still without Parodi but with a Kovar firing on all cylinders (MVP vs Trento). Città di Castello is coming off a spectacular come-back win from 2-0 down against Modena.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (Both for Macerata).
Hubert Henno (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “We want to finish on a high before the 15-day break. We’re hosting Città di Castello, which is coming off a win over Modena and had also beaten Piacenza. They’re full of confidence, and like all teams playing against us, they’ll give their best. We have to be careful after the good performance against Trento, we can’t let them play otherwise it could turn out to be a complicated encounter. We’ve been doing well and we have to keep playing like that”.
Andrea Radici (Coach Altotevere Città di Castello): “Useless to remind you the name of our opponent and how well it is performing right now. The difficult aspects will not go amiss but our goal is to go out there, play without fear and express our potential. That’s what I expect from this game against Macerata: play with determination, a good attitude because we can have a say in this”.
Sir Safety Perugia – Copra Elior Piacenza
Perugia will be live again on Tv following its third win of the season in front of Rai Sport’s cameras against Verona (all at the tie-break). This time on Sportube.tv, they will take on Piacenza, second in the league and keen not to let Macerata escape in the table. Piacenza is coming off a convincing win over Ravenna despite the absence of Zlatanov, who will not play either this round.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (All for Piacenza)
Fabio Fanuli (Sir Safety Perugia): “We’ll face one of the best teams, one of the two favourites for the league title. They have players who have won it all in their career, and some young players, like Vettori, who you can’t even describe as prospects. All in all, a top team with a few stars, there’s a couple of them I really like: setter De Cecco and middle blocker Simon. As for us, the game played against Macerata ten days ago made us understand at the level we need to play, we’ll see if we get close to that against Piacenza. On Saturday in Verona, we won a tough game against a team that plays really well at home, so we’re facing this game with confidence and determined to give it a go”.
Luca Monti (coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “Perugia is a good team that in my opinion has yet to show its real potential. One thing is for sure, this will be a battle, but we’ll be ready for it. We’ll need to play at a very high level and give it our best shot. We are ready for this last effort before the break, which will allow us to get back in the gym and work with continuity”.
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Diatec Trentino
Tough start to the season for Cuneo, which won only one of four so far and was severely defeated 3-0 at home in the last one by Molfetta. They’ll try to get back on track in the big game of the day against Trentino, beaten too last weekend by Macerata.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 44 (23-21 Trento)
Antonin Rouzier (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re ready to face this game as it should be on Thursday against Trento. We played poorly last Sunday, we found it hard in every area of the game. We analysed the game played in Molfetta, we know we’ll need to play at a much higher level to reach our goals. Trentino is a strong side, we’ll need maximum determination”.
Alexandre Ferreira (Diatec Trentino): “It’s important to put the loss against Macerata behind us and get back on the winning track. We’ll try to do that in Cuneo against a team that has always been a tough opponent for us, but this will motivate us even more. We had little time to rest, we’re a little tired, but we’ll have to do well to hide it and make up for it with the sort of team play we managed to build in this first month of competition”.
CMC Ravenna – Calzedonia Verona
The only game scheduled on Sunday will be Ravenna versus Verona. Both will try to bounce back from defeats conceded last week respectively against Piacenza (0-3) and Perugia (2-3). Verona is currently third in the table, four points above Ravenna.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (3-1 Verona)
Marco Bonitta (Coach CMC Ravenna ): “In Piacenza, we have fought hard especially in the third set against a better team than us. Now we’ll be home and we want to keep the home winning streak going against Vibo. We know it won’t be easy by any means because Verona is a good team that had a great start to the season”.
Andrea Giani (Coach Calzedonia Verona): “Ravenna-Verona is an important game first of all because we are two teams more or less of the same level. Besides, this will be a significant test for us as we’re going through a good moment of form. We want to turn the hard work done in the gym into points. It will be an open game against a team led by a well-prepared coach. They also have an excellent roster, this will be a difficult game, as much as many other games of this league”.
