Rinascita facing Lecce

Having closed the regular season with the tie-break victory in Casarano, Rinascita Lagonegro is already ready to take to the taraflex to start the second phase of the season, i.e. the promotion playoffs. As per the Lega Volley regulations, the final third place in the championship (48 points, 16 wins and eight defeats) allows Lorizio’s team to face – tomorrow at Easter at 7pm – the sixth placed team, in this specific case Aurispa DelCar Lecce. The team led by Antonio Cavalera, coach who replaced Omar Pelillo since February 1st, completed its first step with a haul of 35 points, the result of 11 victories and thirteen knockouts. Although far from the noblest areas of the rankings (San Giustino, fifth, finished at 45), the Apulians nevertheless demonstrated during the championship that they are a tough and difficult team to face: Rinascita knows this well and, on the occasion of the match in the first round of 29 October, they suffered their first defeat of the season (3-2) in the Tricase area. Casarano’s victory, as well as strengthening the podium, however gave further certainty to the red and whites, aware of the fact that the playoffs are a new championship in which we start from scratch and where the values ​​on the pitch are almost completely ironed out. And this is why coach Lorizio worked a lot this week on mental stability: the regular season ranking should be put in a drawer, the thing that matters most is knowing Lecce’s strengths and weaknesses by heart, memorizing them and trying to bring them home the first round as the only objective. And Lagonegro will try by having the best scorer in the category, Edvinas Vaskelis (among other things, one of the former players of the match) capable of scoring 560 points in 24 games. He will try with a respectable central chain made up of Molinari (best interpreter of the fundamental block in relation to the sets played), captain Miscione and Pizzichini (starter in Casarano). And he will try with an offensive line (Armenante-Fioretti-Bongiorno) expertly guided by the mind of the sextet, Lorenzo Piazza, and with the solid defensive trench built by Fortunato and, if necessary, Caletti. Last but not least, the young Dietre and Nicotra, and the always useful Mastrangelo, will be ready and available on the bench to make their precious contribution. On the other side, all eyes are on the great former Tiziano Mazzone, in Lagonegro between 2019 and 2021, spiker with 394 points, and the very young opposite Sanchez Arguelles (born in 2003, 505 points).