Serie A1
Round 14
The weekend will start with Latina versus Cuneo. Sunday’s highlight will be the derby between Piacenza and Modena. Molfetta taking on Trentino is another exciting one.
Serie A1 Round 14
Saturday January 25 at 6pm
Andreoli Latina – Bre Lannutti Cuneo Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Rapisarda-Zucca)
Sunday January 26 at 5.30pm
Copra Elior Piacenza – Casa Modena Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Cesare-Santi)
Sunday January 26 at 6pm
Sir Safety Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
(Satanassi-Puecher)
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – CMC Ravenna
(Boris-Goitre)
Exprivia Molfetta – Diatec Trentino Diretta Sportube.tv
(Genna-Balboni)
Calzedonia Verona – Altotevere Città di Castello
(Pozzato-La Micela)
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 36, Copra Elior Piacenza 31, Diatec Trentino 28, Sir Safety Perugia 25, Calzedonia Verona 21, Casa Modena 19, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 16, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 14, Altotevere Città di Castello 14, Exprivia Molfetta 12, CMC Ravenna 10, Andreoli Latina 8
Andreoli Latina – Bre Lannutti Cuneo
Dario Simoni is ready to make his league debut as head coach following the victory over
Pärnu VK and the qualification into the Challenge Cup. Latina will try to make the most of two consecutive home games to get off the bottom position in the table. Cuneo went back to winning ways in the last round led by the pair Casadei-Antonov, well-served by Coscione, en route to a three point win over Verona. They moved up to seventh.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 23 (17-6 Cuneo)
Daniele Sottile (Andreoli Latina): “We have yet another opportunity to get a win that has been lacking for too long. We’ll try to reach our target by being aggressive. We’ll meet a few former Latina players, who had excellent seasons at the club, it’s always nice to see them”.
Gabriele Maruotti (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “This will be a pivotal game for us because after our win over Verona, we have the chance to make it two victories in a row. We have focused all our weekly work on this game, even if just four days later we’ll have another important match in the cup against Macerata. Last week’s victory helped us realize what we could do and give us confidence after a tough patch. They have just changed their coach, and history tells us that when it happens, there is a strong sense of revenge. The players will be extremely motivated and will want to prove a point. We should not underestimate the task we have, and go there determined to take crucial points”.
Copra Elior Piacenza – Casa Modena
This promises to be an exciting derby in which there will be the south-American fantasy and two of the best setters in the world: the Argentine De Cecco and Brasilian Bruninho. Piacenza is coming off a spectacular golden set win over Macerata in the Champions League and the qualification into the playoffs 6. Modena will be without the injured Quesque, while Piacenza’s Fei is close to the 6500 spikes and 1100 blocks.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 28 (17-11 Piacenza)
Luca Monti (Coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “This will be a very tough encounter, especially in terms of energy and mental strength after the effort made in the Champions League playoffs 12 return leg. But we have a deep bench and on Sunday we’ll use all the players we have available. Even if that will be complicated we’ll do our best to win it”.
Angelo Lorenzetti (Coach Casa Modena): “We’re going to face Piacenza and then Trento, top teams. Given the problems of intensity we’ve had in training of late, we are lucky to face those teams in just a few days. These are two games that should help us improve and make us understand how far we are from that level. We have to be tough and try our best. We have to focus on our game. We know how they can hurt us, they have not lost at home for ages and they’re aggressive. We have to play freely, be confident and hit the ball right”.
Sir Safety Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
Perugia vs Macerata is also Atanasijevic vs Zaytsev. An exciting game between the leaders and the fourth team in the league. Kovac’s boys collected two wins to start the second half of season against Cuneo and Modena. Macerata will have to put behind them the huge disappointment caused by the elimination from the Champions League.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (Macerata won them all)
Carmine Fontana (Ass.coach Sir Safety Perugia): “We’re coming off a good battle in Modena where we took three points, but we’ve also come out of it with some physical worries. I think it’s useless to describe all the qualities of Macerata. Against them you have to play at the best of your ability. In the last two games, our serve worked fine and we did not make many mistakes. Those two situations against Macerata must be the basics, then we also have to do well in the block-dig area. They are able to underline every little weakness you might have. The gym will be packed thanks to the name of our opponent, but also thanks to the good things we’re doing. All the players will be keen to do their best, to fight on every ball without ever giving up and making sure they have given everything they had when the game is finished”.
Michele Baranowicz (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “This will be a tough game, they are playing excellent volleyball. We want to give our best, we want to bounce back from our Champions League loss at Piacenza. We have two targets now: the Italian cup and the league. We start over from this game in Perugia, then on Wednesday we host Cuneo in the cup, another important moment of the season”.
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – CMC Ravenna
One of those two teams will celebrate their first victory in the second half of season. Still, Blengini’s men are coming off an excellent performance and were close to snatch a point against Piacenza. An outstanding Gavotto was not enough for Vibo which is now down to 8th. Coach Bonitta will be back on the bench for Ravenna after two games of disqualification. They need to start taking points to make their way into the top 8.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (4-1 Vibo Valentia)
Patrick Steuerwald (Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “We tried to win against Piacenza but we couldn’t get a positive result. We’ll have another go against Ravenna. We have to do our best at home to take points. This game, like all of them in the league, will be difficult. They have a good squad, but we want to take revenge on our first meeting. Maybe we should have taken more points so far, but we have to focus on the future not the past. We have to give our best to win and not think about the Italian cup”.
Marco Bonitta (Coach CMC Ravenna): “We’ll have our full squad in Vibo after a week of training done with great intensity. I expect a much tougher game than in our first meeting. Vibo has improved, they’ve added Cisolla and Farina. Besides, the five games they’ve won so far were all at home. We’re motivated to get a result, but to do so we’ll need to step up a gear compared to recent outings”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Diatec Trentino
Molfetta seems to be a different team on home soil and they’ll hope to have another good one in the PalaPoli arena. Casoli and co will try to bounce back from the poor display in Città di Castello. Led by Sabbi, the Molfetta spikers will need to avoid Trento’s blocking, the best in the Serie A1. The Italian Champions celebrated the Champions League qualification but they have no time to rest as the Italian Cup quarter-finals come right after this game.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Trento)
Bruno Zanuto (Exprivia Molfetta): “We’re working on sudden dips during games aiming to become more consistent. Trento is definitely a level above but we’ve proved in the PalaPoli we could level up by playing well. Like in the first meeting, we’ll try to make the most of the opportunity they’ll give us and bounce back after the loss in Città di Castello”.
Massimo Colaci (Diatec Trentino): “Being from the Puglia region, this will not be a game like any other. There will be family and friends who will finally be able to see me live, this will give me that extra motivation to try to win it on a court that has proved to be rather tough in the first half of season. We want to add to our winning streak, and we’ll try not to be too influenced by the atmosphere to bring home the victory”.
Calzedonia Verona – Altotevere Città di Castello
Verona stumbled in its first trip of the return games in Cuneo, but they stayed fifth. Città di Castello got a big boost from the demolition of Molfetta, which sent them tied in 8th position. Top quality match-up between spikers: Gasparini-Ter Horst-White on one side, and Van Walle-Fromm on the other.
PAST ENCOUNERS: 1 (Verona)
Andrea Giani (Coach Calzedonia Verona): “This will be an interesting game, against a team well-trained and with excellent players. Città di Castello is a group with common targets, they play an effective volleyball. This game will be important not only for the table but also to create a good spirit before the cup quarters. We want to play well and get a good result. The attitude will be key, this will be a tough match, but useful to get our game in place. Right after that we’ll start putting it all into our coming trip to Perugia”.
Manuele Marchiani (Altotevere Città di Castello): “We’re facing a tough game against an excellent team on the serve and at the net, thanks to the physical attributes of its players. Verona has strong players in every area of the game, but we’re eager to bounce back from our 3-1 loss at home in our first meeting. And we want to get our first road win of the season. We’re coming off three excellent games in 2014, if we play like we’ve done of late we ‘ll have a good chance”.
Serie A2
Round 15
Cassa Rurale Cantù – Caffè Aiello Corigliano. Cantù was close to the breakthrough in Sora (Morelli had 20 points) in the last round and now it will play the first of two home games. First target: keeping the opponent of the day at safe distance. Corigliano has not played for three weeks as they were rested last week and there was the cup two weeks ago.
Vero Volley Monza – Coserplast Openet Matera. The two teams have recently met in the cup semi-finals (Monza won) and will be at it again with the aim to catch up Padova at the top. Padura Diaz is just one point away from the thousand in regular season, he is currently the top scorer of the A2. Matera could be without Krolis again, they are losing ground having only taken 3 points out of 9 in the return games so far.
Itely Milano – Tonazzo Padova. Milan has clearly stepped up a gear recently. They took point in each of its last six outings. Tough test tough against the league leaders. Padova have won 11 in a row, 13 if we include the two cup victories.
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte
