Grottazzolina – An evening to remember, for the great affection with which fans and the territory responded on Thursday evening, and for a result that allows the Yuasa Battery to inaugurate the playoff semi-final series as it really couldn’t have done better. The 3-1 comeback against Consar Ravenna, probably the best team at the moment, came at the end of a vibrant match, which started badly and ended in great crescendo, as coach Ortenzi himself said: “We came from a period in which we didn’t play high-level matches, it took us a while to get into the match with serve and block-defense, the things that usually do well for us. Ravenna was coming from a good moment and in the first set they attacked with 80%, it was difficult to counter them. From there the game changed, we were good at finding direct points in the serve that gave us a shock, and we were always inside the game, hitting the block a lot and counterattacking with greater clarity. The fourth wasn’t a playoff set, we’ll take it but from tomorrow everything will be reset.”
Many wondered whether arriving rested was actually an advantage or not; those same players wondered at the end of the match whether Ravenna’s decline at distance could perhaps have been dictated by tiredness from the many close matches: “It’s difficult to say whether the decline is technical or physical, I’d say it doesn’t matter” – continues the coach of the Marches. “The thing that matters to me is that we managed to enter these playoffs well from a nervous point of view, which is not simple stuff.”
To those who ask him what his emotional state is, after an A2 playoff semi-final that Grottazzolina had missed for 24 years, the coach replies: “We said it to each other tonight but also in August, getting to where we want, without saying it, is a dream and like all dreams you have to take care of it, and if there is an opportunity you have to go and take it. We are experiencing it with enthusiasm, the boys have built a lot in recent months, we know that this doesn’t count for the result but it counts for us. The values we hold onto are important, we need to think about that.”
