Final Del Monte® Coppa Italia A3
Abba Pineto – Med Store Tunit Macerata 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 27-25) – Abba Pineto: Paris 1, Milan 28, Bragatto 9, Link 15, Baldari 10, Basso 9, Giuliani (L), Bongiorno 0, Fioretti 0, Calonico 0, Merlo 3, Mignano 0. N.E. Pesare, Omaggi. All. Tomasello. Med Store Tunit Macerata: Kindgard 2, Wawrzynczyk 13, Pizzichini 1, Morelli 17, Lazzaretto 21, Luisetto 10, Gonzi 0, Gabbanelli (L), Margutti 0, De Col 0. N.E. Ravellino, Bacco, Sanfilippo, Paolucci. All. Gulinelli. ARBITRI: Merli, Marotta. NOTE – durata set: 28′, 28′, 26′, 41′; tot: 123′.
Abba Pineto is the winner of the Del Monte® Coppa Italia in Serie A3. Coach Tomasello’s line-up beat Med Store Tunit Macerata 3-1, at the end of a hard-fought and high-level match. After winning the first and second set without particular worries, respectively with the score of 25-22 and 25-21, in the third set Pineto suffers the return of Macerata (17-25), which appeared to be gradually growing. The fourth set is the most tense and hard-fought, the two teams fight head-to-head up to the advantage, where it is Pineto (25-27) who finds the winning twist, giving himself a victory as prestigious as it is beautiful.
The award as Del Monte® MVP of the Finale is assigned to Sebastiano Milan, author of 28 points (21 winning attacks, 4 blocks and 3 aces) and an excellent performance in every fundamental.
Formations confirmed for the two finalists: Macerata takes the field with the setter-opposite diagonal formed by Kindgard and Morelli, the spikers are Wawrzynczyk and Lazzaretto, the central players Luisetto and Pizzichini, the libero Gabbanelli. Pineto lines up Paris in the direction, opposite Link, in the band we find Milan and Baldari, in the center Basso and Bragatto, the libero is Giuliani.
Pineto immediately pushes hard to serve with Paris (6-3) and Link (10-6), making Macerata’s reception suffer. Wawrzynczyk found the block that equalized at 12, but the Abruzzo team didn’t let themselves be intimidated and re-established a fair margin of advantage (15-12), then extending it to 19-14 with Baldari in attack. The Med Store shortens the distance to 23-21, but Pineto just has to check to close 25-22.
In the second set, Abba opens at +4 (8-4) and gains a lead on 14-8. Macerata still believes in it and becomes scary again at 15-14, but the equal ball fails and finds himself chasing at a distance again (20-15). Pineto’s escape is stopped by a good moment from Morelli in attack (22-20), but it is the same opposite that gives the Abruzzo the set point (24-20). Pineto closes 25-21 with a winning diagonal from Milan and can go up 2-0.
Macerata tries to react in the third set, breaking away at 4-8, but Abba maintains concentration and continues to make his opponent feel his breath down his neck. The Med Store rejects any assault attempt, flying on 13-19 with a block by Luisetto and, taking advantage of a few mistakes too many in the Pinetese half, can reopen the games by bringing home the set 17-25.
Macerata continues to grow at the start of the fourth set, with Luisetto pushing his team in attack (3-6, 4-7). Basso finds the parity block and Pineto can get back in the race, then we proceed point by point until Pineto’s break who takes advantage of Baldari’s block and goes ahead 16-14. Wawrzynczyk’s ace immediately restores parity at 16, Macerata tries again to escape, but Pineto continues to respond present and wins the first match point on a score of 24-23. Macerata cancels two, but on the third occasion Milan takes care of closing the games with a score of 25-27 and giving away the Italian Cup to Pineto.
Del Monte® MVP : Sebastiano Milan (Abba Pineto)
Audience: 1200
Sebastiano Milan (Abba Pineto): “It was a team victory, the right culmination of a particular path, which during the championship saw us fall in some matches in which it was not foreseen, but it is thanks to this that today we managed to put that extra something into play. Lifting the Cup was wonderful, but the climate in general made everything special: the Italian field, the atmosphere… These are the reasons why I love the work I do every day. The Del Monte® MVP award was a great emotion, I want to thank my teammates, the public, my family and my girlfriend. But now our thoughts are on the championship, because in the space of a month and a half we’ll be fighting for everything.”
Enrico Lazzaretto (Med Store Tunit Macerata): “In the first two sets Pineto played very well, while we were subdued, but in the third set we recovered and in the fourth we managed to get off to a very good start. Then unfortunately we made a few too many mistakes that demoralized us, while Pineto benefited from a couple of Video Checks in their favour. Losing the Final is never nice, but this is sport too. However, we come out of it with the awareness that we can reach very high, working constantly every day to compensate for our shortcomings.”
