Special SuperLega evening on Tuesday. Last weekend was marked by the italian champions of Modena catching up with Civitanova at the top.
Perugia will try to bounce back from a four-set defeat in Trento when they take on Modena. In spite of better stats in reception, attack and blocking, and Zaytsev as top sorer, the Block Devils were still beaten which proves it’s not all about the stats. Modena joined Civitanova at the top thanks to a home win over Vibo Valentia. This is the only unbeaten team in official games this season considering that Perugia and Trento lost in the SuperCup. Petric was the top scorer last weekend while Vettori and MVP Piano stood out.
Latina is bottom of the league with only one point and without a win. The club fired coach Nacci after the recent loss in Monza. The priority is to break the ice in front of their fans when they take on Molfetta, defeated home by Ravenna in four sets.
Padova has been giving a fight to anyone who dared challenging. However, they could not complete the breakthrough against Civitanova away as they lost the last two sets (2-3). That was a similar game to the one lost at the tie-break against Trentino in the third round. Padova will entertain Monza, who’s coming off a 3-0 home win over Latina. Dzavoronok’s 22 points and MVP performance was extremely good news for the team.
Ravenna is back home with three more points thanks to its four-set victory in Molfetta. Soli’s men dominated in every area of the game. They will try to make a breakthrough they only managed in ten attempts : beat Trento. The later are fourth but potentially tied at the top with Modena and Civitanova given they have a game in hand to play against Piacenza on November 17. On Saturday, Lorenzetti’s men thrashed Perugia home. 3-1 the score after losing the first set. Nelli turned into the star man in attack.
No time to rest for Milan after its record marathon game in Piacenza. Monti’s men will try to register their first home victory of the season against Verona, who’s currently third after three consecutive wins against Monza home, Ravenna away and Sora home.
Last from bottom with three points, tied with Vibo, Sora is coming off a bitter loss in Verona, which followed the euphorical first SuperLega win in history. They will try to bounce back in an unprecedented fixture against Piacenza, the tie-break king who’s coming off a five-set win over Milan behind a huge 39 points from Hernandez.
Newly promoted Vibo Valentia will try to make the upset in its arena when Civitanova comes over this Tuesday evening. Last from bottom tied with Sora, Vibo was severely defeated in Modena last weekend and could not add to the previous five-set win on the road against Milan. Civitanova remained at the top but was joined by Modena. In its Eurosuole Forum, Blengini’s men proved how concentration and fighting spirit could help turn around a game that had begun very poorly. They obtained a come-back tie-break win against Padova. They remain unbeaten in the league.
SuperLega UnipolSai Round 7
Tuesday 1 November at 5.15pm
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Azimut Modena Live RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Martedì 1 novembre 2016, ore 18.00
Top Volley Latina – Exprivia Molfetta Diretta Lega Volley Channel
Kioene Padova – Gi Group Monza Diretta Lega Volley Channel
Bunge Ravenna – Diatec Trentino Diretta Lega Volley Channel
Revivre Milano – Calzedonia Verona Diretta Lega Volley Channel
Biosì Indexa Sora – LPR Piacenza Diretta Lega Volley Channel
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Cucine Lube Civitanova Diretta Lega Volley Channel
League table
Azimut Modena 17, Cucine Lube Civitanova 17, Calzedonia Verona 15, Diatec Trentino 14, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 13, Gi Group Monza 10, Kioene Padova 8, Bunge Ravenna 7, LPR Piacenza 6, Revivre Milano 5, Exprivia Molfetta 4, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 3, Biosì Indexa Sora 3, Top Volley Latina 1
1 incontro in meno: Diatec Trentino, LPR Piacenza
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Azimut Modena
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 13 (9-4 Modena)
Slobodan Kovac (coach Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “The first thing we have to do is learn from the match against Trento to understand our mistakes and then forget about it. Modena is a similar opponent to Trento in terms of characteristics, it will be crucial to serve well. This will be a tough match, but we’re confident because this time we will be at home ».
Roberto Piazza (coach Azimut Modena): “This will be a very complicated match, especially for the atmosphere there will be before the game. On the one hand, there is the earthquake, then the Perugia team angry following their defeat against Trento, and they’ll be keen to bounce back. I don’t believe in individual match-ups, this will be a game between two teams and tough for both, just like it was in the SuperCup. Today, I told the boys that only twice it is possible to come back from 8-3 down in the tie-break, and it has already occured so we’ll have to do it first. The winner will gain confidence. We’re still in the first half of season, we need to get better, but this will be an important moment to understand where we’re at. We’re in good shape, physically and mentally, we’re ready for a great game ».
Top Volley Latina – Exprivia Molfetta
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 6 (5-1 Latina)
Candido Grande (Sport director Top Volley latina): “First of all I want to thank Nacci for the time spent with us and I wish him the best for the future. For the second year in a row against Molfetta we will team up with the Lucky Friends association from Lamezia Terme, which helps disabled people find their place in the world of sport. As for the game, we expect everybody to step up. This will be an important game for us, we really want to do well and not only to come out of negative run ».
Francesco Del Vecchio (Exprivia Molfetta): “This will be a difficult game. Besides, we’ve not been too good of late. We have to try to get on track as a team and with hard work. We need to stay composed and try to limit our mistakes as much as we can. We have a young team, we can and we want to improve. We have so much will to get on court and play with our pride and fighting spirit ».
Kioene Padova – Gi Group Monza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 11 (7-4)
Fabio Balaso (Kioene Padova): “We’ll definitely face a difficult encounter against a team that proved how good it is. We know we have been doing well of late, we’ve been getting better and better. We took an important point against Civitanova. It’s true Tuesday’s game will be totally different but we will focus on our game, trying to take advantage of playing home ».
Iacopo Botto (Gi Group Monza): “The loss against Sora and the match against Latina, in spite of being two different games for us, proved how difficult it is against any opponent this season. Padova has been playing excellent volleyball, they have been quick to gel. We have worked with our new line-up last week, and we proved we had a good group eager to do well. What we’ll need to beat Padova is first of all staying focused on our game, trying to impose our game and limit our mistakes as much as possible. There are important points at stake and we don’t want to lose any more points on the way after the poor result against Sora ».
Bunge Ravenna – Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 10 (9-1 Trento)
Fabio Soli (coach Bunge Ravenna): “I am glad with the identity we’re building, the one of a team capable of giving trouble to the top guns. And we will do everything possible to do it again when we take on Trento. But we know it will be very tough, we’ll try to make it hard for them though I know they won’t underestimate us. They are not tired at all after their World Club Championships, on the contrary, they are even more prepared and in the last game they made the most of their deep quality roster. Just like against Molfetta, we’ll need to do a good job of overcoming the difficult times by using all the resources we have in our squad. We’ll need to be patient and agressive and we’ll need to take on the bounce any opportunity when and if they come our way ».
Filippo Lanza (Diatec Trentino): “We’re travelling to Ravenna and we’ll need to find the energy and focus to beat an opponent who already proved it could make it hard for anyone, especially at home. We cannot relax after Saturday’s game against Perugia. I think this game in the Pala De Andrè arena is the toughest of the first three we had coming back from Brazil ».
Revivre Milano – Calzedonia Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (All Verona)
Luca Monti (coach Revivre Milano): “The most interesting thing will be to see if we can do as well against Verona as we did against Piacenza. We proved we wanted it, that we would not give up and I really liked our team play at times. Our next opponent is top class, but this does not mean we cannot get a result. We don’t have any regrets about the Piacenza game because everybody said we’d lose it anyway. We took a point and were very close to get something more. Our goal will be to repeat all the good things seen last Saturday. If we play well, we can give them a game ».
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “No matter if the opponent is given as stronger than you or not, what matters is what you show on court. We’ll go to Milan knowing that we’ll need to win from first to last point if we want the victory. We will prepare this game, which is close to the one againsr Sora, and as usual what will matter will be the quality we’ll be able to put on stage ».
Biosì Indexa Sora – LPR Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Marco Santucci (Biosì Indexa Sora): “This will be a difficult game. Piacenza has only got experienced players with excellent fondamentals. Take Papi for instance, a legend of Italian volleyball and not only, or Zlatanov and Marshall. This will be another battle, a big test for us against a very competitive team. We feel confident, we are aware of our abilities. We will give it our best shot for our fans who have become more and more numerous. They have become our extra man, hopefully this will be enough to beat our opponent ».
Fernando Hernandez (LPR Piacenza): “In the fifth round, Sora has won home against Monza. Useless to say they will be up for it, eager to give their fans another great result. We will do our best to play a good game and take all three points after three wins at the tie-break ».
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Cucine Lube Civitanova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 23 (6 successi Vibo Valentia, 17 successi Civitanova)
Carlos Eduardo Barreto Silva (Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “Another big game ahead of us against a very strong team in every area of the court. We’ll really need to play our best volleyball. Against Perugia and Modena we proved we could have our say, but we still lack a little consistency in order to move up a level. I want the arena packed tomorrow like against Perugia, our fans really inspire us to play with even more determination ».
Antonio Corvetta (Cucine Lube Civitanova): “You always have to be extremely focused when you play Vibo in their gym. There is a special atmosphere there that gets them a level higher than initially expected. We want to go home with three points to prepare the coming games against our main rivals with a little advantage in the standings. This won’t be easy but we really need it ».
