The third stage of the Volleyball Nations League 2024 came to a close over the weekend with four members of Cucine Lube Civitanova wearing the shirts of their respective national teams: the spiker Mattia Bottolo with Italy, the spiker Poriya Hossein Khanzadeh with Iran, the opposite Adis Lagumdzija with Turkey and spiker Eric Loeppky with Canada.
Italy, third in the ranking, will go to the Finals in Poland, with Mattia Bottolo, but without Fabio Balaso, who will work in Cavalese with other ‘Bigs’ in view of the Olympics. Pass for Eric Loeppky’s Canada, fifth in the general rankings, beating France by set difference, admitted to the Finals with sixth place despite the absence of central defender Barthelemy Chinenyeze, who was unavailable.
Third week budget
In the chair with the Italy shirt in Slovenia, in Pool 5, the winger Bottolo, who had not been called up in the first two weeks. The spiker from Lube remained on the bench during the clear defeat against Poland, while he gave a sample of his repertoire, scoring 15 points (11 attacks, 3 aces and 1 block), in the success with the greatest margin against Bulgaria in Chicco Blengini, orphan of the convalescent Alex Nikolov. In the three-set stoppage against Slovenia, the athlete originally from Padua did not go beyond 11 points, but then made up for it in the 3-1 inflicted on Turkey with 15 points, the result of 11 winning attacks, 3 aces and 1 block .
A lot of effort in Ljubljana but with a final exploit from Lagumdzija, conditioned by an unmemorable VNL for his Turkey. The opposite scored 10 points in the 3-1 defeat against Bulgaria in his debut of the third week and put his name among the scorers only twice in the defeat against Argentina. On a personal note, the match against Serbia, lost 3-1, was even more lacking in satisfaction (1 point for Adis). Even with Italy there was a stoppage in four sets, but Lube’s opposite number kept us doing well by stamping out 21 seals (15 attacks, 4 blocks and 2 aces).
Standings VNL approaching the Finals
1) Slovenia 11 vittorie – 28 punti
2) Polonia 10 – 29
3) Italia 9 – 27
4) Giappone 9 – 25
5) Canada 8 -23 (differenza set 1.526)
6) Francia 8 – 23 (differenza set 1.500)
7) Brasile 6 – 21
8) Argentina 6 – 18
9) Cuba 5 – 17 (differenza set 0.923)
10) Serbia 5 -17 (differenza set 0.884)
11) Germania 5 – 15 (differenza set 0.800)
12) USA 5 – 15 (differenza set 0.730)
13) Paesi Bassi 3 –11
14) Bulgaria 3 – 8
15) Iran 2 – 6
16) Turchia 1 – 5
Tabellone completo Quarti in gara unica a Lodz (Polonia)
Giovedì 27 giugno 2024
Giappone – Canada, ore 17
Polonia – Brasile, ore 20
Venerdì 28 giugno 2024
Italia – Francia, ore 17
Slovenia – Argentina, ore 20
