Last pre-season test for Emma Villas Siena, who will be playing in Santa Croce sull’Arno tomorrow afternoon at 6pm against the red and white team for the Parenti Trophy. It will be the last match before the start of the regular season, with the Sienese playing the first match of the Serie A2 championship on Sunday 15 October in Abruzzo, in Ortona.
Biancoblu complete tomorrow afternoon for what can now be considered a “classic” of Tuscan volleyball. In recent years the two teams have faced each other ten times in the championship (with seven victories for Siena and three for Santa Croce) and many times they have also competed in friendly pre-season matches useful for refining and improving team chemistry. The last official match between the two clubs is a beautiful memory for Siena: in April 2022 the two teams faced each other at the PalaParenti. For Emma Villas it was a decisive match in the fight for survival. The blue and white played excellent volleyball and won the match, managing to secure safety in Serie A2.
It was a long pre-season for Emma Villas who faced several teams that coach Gianluca Graziosi’s team will face as opponents in the next championship: Santa Croce sull’Arno, Ravenna, Prata di Pordenone. Many indications have already emerged, and on which the Sienese staff has worked, in view of the first matches that will “count” and which will offer points for the ranking.
On the eve of the match at PalaParenti the assistant coach of Emma Villas Siena, Marco Monaci, presents the challenge: “This is an important commitment – these are his words. – It will be the last of our pre-season, we are slowly approaching the start of the A2 tournament. We had another good week, we worked on those aspects in which we had done less well up to now. We are confident for tomorrow, it will be a significant test also because both we and Santa Croce will be fully booked.”
Monaci continues: “We played many test matches and tried various solutions. We also await with interest the indications that may arrive tomorrow, both teams will be complete and therefore it will be a useful moment to understand where we are at. We hope to be able to see the things we tried during the week come to fruition. We will be able to see at what point the agreements between our boys are at and we hope to be able to put a good competitive energy on the field.”
