SERIE A1 TIM
Sunday and Monday’s games
SERIE A1 TIM 17th ROUND
Saturday 10 January at 6.30pm
Sisley Treviso – Trenkwalder Modena LIVE ON SKY SPORT 2
(Pessolano – Castagna)
Sunday 11 January at 6pm
Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
(Barbero – Locatelli)
Itas Diatec Trentino – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
(Padoan – Zucca)
Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari – Antonveneta Padova
(Giani – Rapisarda)
Framasil Pineto – Yoga Forli
(Sampaolo – Saltalippi)
Sunday 11 January at 6.30pm
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Lube Banca Marche Macerata LIVE ON SKY SPORT 2
(Lavorenti – Caldarola)
Monday 12 January at 8.30pm
Marmi Lanza Verona – Stamplast Martina Franca LIVE ON SKY SPORT 2
(Cesare – Pol)
TABLE
Itas Diatec Trentino 37, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 36, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 35, Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza 33, RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 27, Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari 25, Marmi Lanza Verona 23, Sisley Treviso 21, Trenkwalder Modena 21, Stamplast Martina Franca 20, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 18, Framasil Pineto 16, Yoga Forli 14, Antonveneta Padova 10.
COPRA NORDMECCANICA PIACENZA – BRE BANCA LANNUTTI CUNEO
Past encounters: 26 (10-6 Piacenza).
First leg: Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 28-26).
Record chasers: Piacenza’s João Paolo Bravo will celebrate his 100th league game. On the other side of the net, Francesco Frotunato needs two blocks to reach the 400 in the Serie A (league playoffs and cup).
Angelo Lorenzetti (Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza): “Even if we’ve won three in a row, we’re not at our best technically and physically, we made a step back and we’re neither brilliant nor consistent as we were in certain periods in the first half of championship. Cuneo looks pretty much like Trento last year: they’ve gone top in every stat categories so it will be a good test to know where we stand”.
Manius Abbadi (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re facing a very tough game on Sunday against Piacenza, who’s just had a nice win over Treviso, a result that has surely given confidence to the team. We’re feeling fine, we’ll have to use our serve to make it difficult for them”.
ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO – TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA
Past encounter: 8 (7-1 Trento).
First leg: Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Itas Diatec Trentino 1-3 (27-25, 15-25, 14-25, 21-25).
Record chasers: Paolo Cozzi is 4 blocks away from the 500 in the league. Trento’s setter Nikola Grbic just needs one for the 700 blocks (league and cup). Cosimo Marco Piscopo is on his way to the 1000 points in the league, he needs 3 more. Vibo’s explosive player, Ventceslav Simeonov will try to get 6 points to reach 4500 in the league.
Michal Winiarski (Itas Diatec Trentino): “We’ll have to be very careful, not only because Vibo proved it could do well away by beating Piacenza and Treviso but also because our 3-2 score against Padova shows you can never let your guards down against anyone. We’re playing well, especially with the serve but to win, we’ll have to be more consistent in every department of the game, not only on the serve. We want the three points to remain in first place”.
Kostantin Shumov (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “On Sunday we’ll play away against the leaders and we know we’re facing a tough game. We haven’t managed to get any points yet in the return games, so we have to do our best to change this. We’ll face this game with determination and we’ll give it our best shot, hoping to get something out of it”.
ACQUA PARADISO GABECA MONTICHIARI – ANTONVENETA PADOVA
Past encounters: 46 (28-18 Montichiari).
First leg: Antonveneta Padova – Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari 1-3 (25-23, 29-27, 24-26, 20-25).
Record chasers: Padova’s captain, Giorgio De Togni will play its 100th game in the Serie A. Teammate, Jiri Kral, will try to obtain its 100th block in the Serie A. Mauro Gavotto, Montichiari’s outside hitter, could make it 200 aces in the league with 3 more.
Daniel Howard (Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari): “Even if Padova is bottom of the table, we should not underestimate them because they managed to force Trento, the leaders, to play a tie-break in the last round. We’ll have to be very careful in reception because they serve very well. In my opinion, the most threatening player is Ramon Gato: I played for many years with him and I know he has a huge potential, even if he’s not having his best season. We’ll have to watch out for his serve because he managed to turn gales around more than once with his serve”.
Stefano Santuz (direttore sportivo Antonveneta Padova): “We’re going to Montichiari hunting for points. We showed we were in good shape against Trento and that we could play face to face with the best teams. We have to keep focused, trying to make as few mistakes as possible in order to keep our opponent under pressure”.
FRAMASIL PINETO – YOGA FORLI
Past encounters: 3 (2-1 Forli).
First leg: Yoga Forli – Framasil Pineto 1-3 (19-25, 29-27, 24-26, 20-25).
Record chasers: Albreto Casadei will celebrate his 100th appearance with Forli in the league.
Jason Haldane (Yoga Forli): “If we look at the league table, the game against Pineto becomes a crucial one. In the first leg, I was not there, I still think we could do well this time, learning from the last games. Against Perugia, we were close to get a point, and we learned a lot from that game. The pressure will be on them. We’re physically fine, so we’ll play without fear. And it’s not the last game of the season”.
Rafael Luiz Fantin ‘Dentinho’ (Framasil Pineto): “It will be a tough game against Forli. We prepared this game with great intensity, aware of what is at stake. That’s the most important game of the season for us. We’ll have to be reactive, physically and mentally, during the whole game. The victory is crucial”.
RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT PERUGIA – LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA
Past encounters: 15 (14-1 Macerata). Macerata won all of them in the PalaEvangelisti.
First leg: Lube Banca Marche Macerata – RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-15).
Record chasers: Martin Lebl could reach the 500 blocks in Serie A, he needs 3 more. Cristian Savani is 3 aces from 200 in the Serie A. Goran Vujevic needs 15 points to reach 4.000 points in the Serie A.
Vigor Bovolenta (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “We know Macerata is one of the best teams of this league, with great individual players, but we shouldn’t be afraid. In the first leg, we had one of our worst performance and we want to do better. Besides, we want to keep our positive run going, as we’ve been unbeaten for three rounds”.
Sebastian Swiderski (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Personally, it’s a special game for me. I spent important years of my career and life in Perugia, I’ve always got special feelings when I play against them. It’s always nice to see some old friends, but you can be sure we won’t give anything away. It’s a very important game for us, we want the three point, that would allow us to play Trento the following Sunday with the top spot at stake”.
MARMI LANZA VERONA – STAMPLAST MARTINA FRANCA
Past encounters: 7 (4-3 Verona).
First leg: Stamplast Martina Franca – Marmi Lanza Verona 3-1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-20, 25-19).
Record chasers: Rob Bontje is 2 aces from the 100 in regular season, while his opponent Luigi Mastrangelo needs one block to reach the 800 in regular season.
Simone Parodi (Marmi Lanza Verona): “We’re all fit now so we have to start playing at our best again. Three points could be important for the league table. We worked a lot of late and that might be one of the reason we haven’t played at our best. I think we’ll be back to normality from Monday”.
Luigi Mastrangelo (Stamplast Martina Franca): “We can’t afford to lose in Verona because the next game is against Treviso, who will come and play with anger to get back up the table. On Monday night, we have to play with consistency, be aggressive from the start like against Macerata and Pineto, avoid tight sets and try to build a 3-4 point cushion to keep our opponent at distance. We do think about the playoffs but we need to gather the point to make sure we stay up first”.
