Marco Pierotti: “I expect another difficult and balanced match, these matches are decided on the details”
Emma Villas Siena took a 1-0 lead in the playoff quarter-final series against Brescia. Coach Gianluca Graziosi’s team played a very good match on Wednesday evening at PalaEstra, which was very balanced in the first two sets: the first was won by the locals, the second by the guests. Then Siena shifted into higher gear, with a very good 60% in attack and with great quality also in the service in the third set, which Emma Villas won 25-19. The Sienese also played the fourth set with a lot of attention, touching many balls, defending well and taking the lead until the final 25-15.
Four of the blue and whites reached double figures in terms of points scored: Alessio Tallone (judged MVP of the match) scored 14 points, 15 each came from Matheus Krauchuk and Marco Pierotti, 12 from Riccardo Copelli.
The Sienese team is continuing training. The quarter-final series has in fact just begun: on Monday, Easter Monday, it will already be repeated. The match will be played in Lombardy, at the San Filippo sports center in Brescia: the match will start at 6pm. The home team will try to bring the series back to a draw and therefore reach game 3, while the goal of the Sienese will be to win the pass to the semi-finals. In the quarter-final which is in the Siena and Brescia part of the scoreboard there is the ongoing series between Cuneo and Porto Viro, with the Delta Group having won game 1 away: the final result is 0-3. Grottazzolina, winner of the regular season, awaits the winner of the quarter-final series between Ravenna and Prata di Pordenone in the semi-final: Consar won game 1 3-0.
“We are very happy with how game 1 went – said Emma Villas Siena spiker Marco Pierotti at the end of Wednesday’s match. – It was important to start with a victory at home. The series is still long, now we will have to try to win in Brescia and obviously it won’t be easy to do so. We were good and showed good things in game 1, only in the second set did we give away too much to our opponents and in that moment we weren’t able to put Brescia in difficulty with the serve. But then we came out of it well, we were clear. I think there is a lot of balance in this series, the races at this point are about details. In the fourth set we managed to take a good lead and I was almost surprised by it. It will certainly be a hard-fought and absolutely balanced match in Brescia.”
