Only two rounds to play to the end of the SuperLega regular season. Sunday’s opening game will be in Trentino, currently third two points away from Modena in second place. The Italian champions gained more confidence from their latest come-back win over Milan thanks to some excellent blocking. They will take on Verona, whose setter Michele Baranowicz will make his 200th appearance. Verona is coming off back to back wins over Milan and Romagna which meant moving up to fourth over Perugia.
Bitterly defeated on Wednesday in Padova in a crucial game for seventh place, Monza has now Romagna dangerously lurking right behind. Vacondio’s men need a breakthrough against Civitanova to make the playoffs. But the league leaders have only lost twice in the league. Since its cup disappointment, they have been unstoppable, winning in the most difficult places like in Modena before having the best of Molfetta at home on Wednesday. Middle blocker Enrico Cester should be back in the squad.
Taste of derby coming up for CMC Romagna, defeated in the clutch moments of the game in Verona on Wednesday. The giants of Waldo Kantor are three points away from the playoffs zone, but they have a mountain to climb against Modena. The latter have had some injuries and have not looked like the unstoppable machine it used to be of late. They’re coming off a tough tie-break win in Perugia which complicated further their chances of finishing in first place, now four points away. Mathematically it is still possible but the priority is to defend the second place from Trento’s come-back.
Stuck at the bottom with seven points, Piacenza will play its remaining and slim chances not to finish dead last. Giuliani’s men will face Perugia, who pushed the cup winners of Modena to a tie-break on Wednesday. However, the Block Devils are running out of gas of late and they’ve been leapfrogged by Verona in fourth place. They stand only one point behind, though, and Verona travels to Trento so they hope to immediately regain what they lost on Wednesday.
Latina will try to make it two in a row following its win in Piacenza as it entertains Molfetta. Currently eighth in the table, Latina won four of its last five against Sunday’s opponent. Di Pinto’s first game as Molfetta coach had been a superb 3-2 win over Perugia but that was followed by a severe defeat against Civitanova. Now the only goal is to lock up sixth place. Davide Candellaro is two points from a thousand.
Seventh, Padova is now focused on chasing sixth place following its excellent performance against Monza on Wednesday. Without Marco Volpato because of a sprained ankle, Padova has to remain concentrated against Milan, who had had a very positive start of encounter against Trento in the last round (four-set defeat). Giorgio De Togni’s next point will be number one thousand in the Serie A.
SuperLega UnipolSai round 21
Sunday 28 February at 5.15pm
Diatec Trentino – Calzedonia Verona Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Sunday 28 February at 6pm
Gi Group Monza – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova Live on Lega Volley Channel
CMC Romagna – DHL Modena Live on Lega Volley Channel
LPR Piacenza – Sir Safety Conad Perugia Live on Lega Volley Channel
Ninfa Latina – Exprivia Molfetta Live on Lega Volley Channel
Tuesday 1 March at 8.30pm
Tonazzo Padova – Revivre Milano Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova 53, DHL Modena 49, Diatec Trentino 47, Calzedonia Verona 38, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 37, Exprivia Molfetta 26, Tonazzo Padova 25, Ninfa Latina 24, Gi Group Monza 22, CMC Romagna 21, Revivre Milano 11, LPR Piacenza 7
Diatec Trentino – Calzedonia Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 26 (20-6 Trento)
Simone Giannelli (Diatec Trentino): “We have to reset it all immediately after the emotions and the effort made on Wednesday night against Milan. We really haven’t got any time to think with this dense fixture list right now but it’s the same for everybody, so we’re not making excuses. Verona is a great team, it will be a battle but we’ll have the advantage of playing home”.
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona):“This will be a very important game against Trento. They’re aiming for second place, while we’re trying to stay fourth. Some big points at stake and there are only two games to play for in this regular season, so each one will be massive”.
Gi Group Monza – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (all 3 for Civitanova)
Oreste Vacondio (coach Gi Group Monza):“We’re disappointed with the loss against Padova, but we have to avoid thinking about the points lost on the way. Making an overall analysis would not be productive, it might get us frustrated more than anything else. What we have to do is being aware that we’re mathematically still in the race, even if the situation has become really complicated. We have two finals to play, against Civitanova and Verona away, let’s just try our best”.
Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “We’re three points away from securing first place in this regular season. Our goal is get them right away against Monza to get it over with. Obviously it will be anything but easy, given that they’re fighting for a place in the playoffs and will give their very best. We’ll need to be focused on every play and maintain a high level of play”.
CMC Romagna – DHL Modena
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 71 (57-14 Modena)
Maarten Van Garderen (CMC Romagna): “We have to face Modena with free minds, without any pressure. It’s true we need points, but nobody can think it will be easy or logical to take points against Modena. They have a great team, we’ll just have to try our best, hoping they’ll be a bit tired after the five sets played in Perugia and that they might have the Champions League game against Ankara in their minds. We proved in the first meeting in Modena we were not easy to beat, we had been very close to a tie-break, so we can have our say. Hopefully, our fans will give us a hand, like in recent games, their support will be very important to us”.
Andrea Sartoretti (GM DHL Modena): “We’re coming off a very important and difficult victory in Perugia. A win that proved the team and well and truly alive, showing some excellent volleyball again, like it did for most of the season, the numbers and wins are here as testimony. We know it will be Ravenna’s last chance to try to get into the playoffs but we want to win at all costs to keep our second place”.
LPR Piacenza – Sir Safety Conad Perugia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 15 (9-6 Piacenza)
Stefano Patriarca (LPR Piacenza): “So much has been said about our situation and our performances. The only thing we can do is take the coming games against Perugia and Molfetta as a preparation for the Challenge Cup playoffs, which could be an opportunity for the team to redeem itself. We have to believe in it till the end, and bounce back from the poor display against Latina. We have to do more than what we’ve done on court”.
Andrea Giovi (Sir Safety Conad Perugia):“We have to get back to fourth place at all cost before the playoffs. Obviously, it does not only depend on us, but the only thing we can do is try to take as many points from our last two games. Then, we’ll just see what Verona does. Whatever the league table says, we have to get there and play our game. Players of the experience and quality of Zlatanov, Papi and Tencati are dangerous. If we don’t play at our best, it will be complicated. But like I said, we have to come back to Perugia with all three points”.
Ninfa Latina – Exprivia Molfetta
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (4-1 Latina)
Gabriele Maruotti (Ninfa Latina): “This will be a key game for us, one that could make the difference between a good season or a mediocre one. After the solid performance in Piacenza we want to prove we’re mature enough for the playoffs. We have to play with determination and be ready to battle. We know many fans will come from Molfetta, but I hope the Latina fans will fill the gym in numbers once again to give us a hand”.
Davide Candellaro (Exprivia Molfetta):“Here is a crucial game, they’ll all be fundamental from now on. We have to take care of every detail, be focused to prevent as many balls from falling as possible. We’ll face an in-form team and with the same ambitions as ours, meaning to finish as high as possible at the end of the regular season. Some of our supporters will follow us, and that can only motivate us further”.
Tonazzo Padova – Revivre Milano
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (4-1 Milan)
Valerio Baldovin (coach Tonazzo Padova): “We had a great game both at the net and in the block-dig area on Wednesday. We’ll have to keep playing like this on Wednesday and try to limit our mistakes as much as possible compared to the first set played in Monza. Milan made it very hard for us in the first meeting, so we’ll have to be ready to give it all and prepare this game in details”.
Luca Monti (coach Revivre Milano):“We know they’re in great shape, they’ve been playing superb volleyball. We’re well aware we’ll need our very best volleyball. Hopefully, we’ll have Skrimov back, and maybe De Togni too. We have two games left which we can win, though not easy. Padova and Ravenna will surely make it hard for us. We have to try to play well to prepare ourselves for the Challenge Cup playoffs”.
With six rounds to the end of the regular season, there will be some big games this weekend for teams trying their best to hang on to their playoffs dreams.
It will all start on Saturday night when Castellana Grotte takes on Brescia. Castellana lost its last game at the tie-break and is still eight points away from 8th place, while Brescia has been brilliant of late taking 8 points out of three wins over Vibo Valentia, Alessano and Civita Castellana in its last three games.
Vibo Valentia versus Alessano puts face to face the league leaders against the bottom team. Vibo Valentia is however coming off a defeat in the capital against Club Italia. As for Alessano, they have wasted a 2-0 lead in the last round at home against Siena, while they have rarely been brilliant on the road.
Second in the league Sora is facing a crucial encounter as the cup final defeat was followed by two more losses against Civita Castellana and Tuscania. To get back on track, Sora will have to beat many of its former stars like Scappaticcio, Di Marco and Tamburo, all in Siena now. The team from Tuscany is tied in seventh place after its come-back victory in Tricase. In the first meeting between the two clubs, Siena had beaten Sora in four sets.
Ortona will try to make the most of a second home game in a row to turn things around. However, they’ll probably be without the injured Dallas Soonias against Civita Castellana. Ortona lost its last encounter against Cantù, while Civita has mixed up the best and the worst of late with impressive wins over Potenza and Sora, but also poor losses against Club Italia and Brescia.
Potenza did not handled the end of sets well in the last round and was defeated in Reggio Emilia. With Andrea Ippolito out till the 15th of March and coming off four straight losses, they will try to make the most of the court advantage against Tuscania, who thrashed Sora in the derby last Sunday and now stand just one point behind third place. Tuscania had lost the first meeting in the league but they had knocked Potenza out of the A2 cup.
Fifth in the table after its straight set win in Ortona, Cantù will try to slow down Reggio Emilia’s superb run. Reggio has been showing cold blooded composure in the tight sets, just like in the last round against Potenza. They are now just one point behind Cantù and hoping to move above them in the table.
Club Italia wants to beat Mondovì to move above its opponent of the day in the table. Totire’s men looked very comfortable playing at noon last Sunday, enjoying a nice lunch time victory over the leaders Vibo Valentia. Mondovì is seven points away from the playoffs zone, but they proved they could be stubborn and fight in the last round when they beat Castellana Grotte 3-2.
Serie A2 UnipolSai round 21
Saturday 27 February at 8.30pm
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte – Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia Live on Lega Volley Channel
Sunday 28 February at 12am
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Aurispa Alessano Live on Lega Volley Channel
Sunday 28 February at 4pm
Globo Banca Pop. Frusinate Sora – Emma Villas Siena Live on Lega Volley Channel
Sunday 28 february at 6pm
Sieco Service Ortona – Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana Live on Lega Volley Channel
Potenza Picena – Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania Live on Lega Volley Channel
Cassa Rurale Cantù – Conad Reggio Emilia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Del Vecchio-Curto)
Monday 29 February at 8.30pm
Club Italia Roma – BAM Mondovì Live on Lega Volley Channel
League table
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 45, Globo Banca Pop. Frusinate Sora 42, Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana 37, Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania 36, Cassa Rurale Cantù 34, Conad Reggio Emilia 33, Emma Villas Siena 31, Potenza Picena 31, BAM Mondovì 24, Club Italia Roma 23, Sieco Service Ortona 23, Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte 23, Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia 20, Aurispa Alessano 18
