SERIE A1 TIM
Macerata regular season champs, Vibo snatches last playoff spot
Vibo Valentia snatched the last playoff spot in the last round of the regular season. Jon Uriarte’s team had the better of Montichiari at home and will be amongst the 8 teams taking part in the post season from the 26th of March. This means Verona is out. It had beaten Forli at the fifth set but Vibo’s result condemned them. Forli finished their season in the A1 with a performance full of pride, which allow them to stay last from bottom.
In its last game in their 25 consecutive years in the A1, and before saying goodbye to the elite, Padova swept Pineto 3-0, but that’s little consolation to them.
The first place was at stake in this last round between Macerata and Trentino. At the Fontescodella gym, Corsano and co played to have fun and the crowd enjoyed it. Still, with everybody eventually back after two month of struggling, Piacenza interrupted Macerata’s unbeaten home run coming back from a 2-0 deficit. However, Macerata stayed top as Trentino also lost at the tie-break away at Martina Franca, who realised the double against the Italian Champs this season.
Finally, Modena’s fans could enjoy one last win in Straight set over Perugia.
SERIE A1 TIM – Last round results
Sisley Treviso – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 27-25)
Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza 2-3 (26-24, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 6-15)
Stamplast Martina Franca – Itas Diatec Trentino 3-2 (16-25, 32-20, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12)
Marmi Lanza Verona – Yoga Forli 3-2 (25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-13)
Trenkwalder Modena – RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-16)
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari 3-0 (29-27, 25-17, 25-22)
Framasil Pineto – Antonveneta Padova 0-3 (23-25, 22-25, 18-25)
TABLE
Lube Banca Marche Macerata 57, Itas Diatec Trentino 56, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 53, RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 50, Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza 48, Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari 42, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 39, Sisley Treviso 38, Marmi Lanza Verona 36, Trenkwalder Modena 33, Stamplast Martina Franca 28, Framasil Pineto 25, Yoga Forli 21, Antonveneta Padova 20.
STATS AND POST GAME QUOTES
LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA – COPRA NORDMECCANICA PIACENZA 2-3 (26-24, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 6-15)
LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA: Lebl 8, Vermiglio, Bartoletti 15, Snippe, Saraceni 1, Martino 14, Corsano (L), Santana 11, Swiderski 16, Podrascanin 1. DNP Giovi, Monopoli. Coach. De Giorgi Ferdinando.
COPRA NORDMECCANICA PIACENZA: Rak 11, Pampel 23, Insalata 11, Meoni 1, Marshall 18, Grassano, Boninfante, Zingaro (L), Zlatanov 4, Durante (L), Bravo 9, Dunnes 3, Bjelica 5.Coach. Lorenzetti Angelo.
Ferdinando De Giorgi (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “We played two sets at a high level and then we incredibly lost our focus, making too many mistakes. And we never managed to get back to our initial level. Omrcen’s absence? It’s undeniably an important player, but we certainly can’t use this as an excuse, given how brilliant we were in taking the first two sets. As for the playoffs, the opposition does not matter, especially when you want to go all the way. Let’s forget quickly about today and rest for Thursday’s game: We have two very intense and important weeks ahead of us. We have to face them with the right mentality”.
Marco Meoni (Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza): “Our main target was to give some precious court time to our players back from injuries, and I think we managed to do that a bit. A victory in Macerata is always a great result, even more this season as they were unbeaten. That’s a good omen for the playoffs”.
STAMPLAST MARTINA FRANCA – ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO 3-2 (16-25, 32-30, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12)
STAMPLAST MARTINA FRANCA: Ricciardello (L), Coscione 10, Cernic 15, Guglielmi (L), Stoijkovic, Mastrangelo 10, Corsini 12, Sequeira 12, Furtado 1, Rodriguez 8. DNP Quartarone. Coach. D’onghia Gianni.
ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO: Kaziyski 10, Segnalini (L), Birarelli 6, Zygadlo, Della Lunga 3, Vissotto Neves 31, Grbic 2, De Paola 2, Leonardi 2, Winiarski 4, Bari (L), Piscopo 9. DNP Stefanov. Coach. Stoytchev Radostin.
Gianni D�€�Onghia (Stamplast Martina Franca): “We finished this season in the best possible way, by beating the Italian champs. We are happy for our fans that were there again to help us. We are staying up and I don’t think this is a bad result, we have to be proud of what we’ve achieved. Trentino? It’s there problem if they were not very focused in the tie-break. We took advantage”.
Leandro Vissotto (Itas Diatec Trentino): “If I am the player I am today, I owe it to Taranto (the club moved to Martina Franca). Last season, their staff did an awful lot for me and we stayed up despite having a team not as good as the one Martina Franca has this season. I want to win everything with Trentino. The season had started badly for me, because of the injuries and the difficulty to settle in, but everything is fine now”.
MARMI LANZA VERONA – YOGA FORLI 3-2 (25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-13)
MARMI LANZA VERONA: Latelli (L), Parodi 8, Popp 17, Sottile, Colaci, Lasko 26, Dehne 3, Szabo, Volpini (L), Maric 8, Semenzato 6, Bontje 12. DNP Mosterts. Coach. Giuliani Alberto.
YOGA FORLI: Haldane 10, Henno (L), Molteni 20, Bendi (L), Bittar, Redwitz 2, Di Franco 9, Casadei 21, Bellini, Patriarca 15, Bozko 1. DNP Cardona, Loglisci. Coach. Molducci Piero.
Maurizio Latelli (Marmi Lanza Verona): “If we analyze the whole season we have to be satisfied, we secured our place in the A1 with a few games in hand, we played at a high level for most of the season. Overall it’s a good result. Obviously we are a bit disappointed to have missed out on the playoffs after spending most of the year amongst the top 8”.
Giuseppe Patriarca (Yoga Forli): “I think this season could not finish any better, it’s not easy to play when you’re bottom and that everything is already decided. We wanted to come out with our heads high of this very tough championship. We have to say that we’ve never played three games in a row with the same outside hitter, and that’s not easy. We are the only club to have experienced this difficulties so we really want to thank our fans who never stopped to support us despite all this”.
TRENKWALDER MODENA – RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT PERUGIA 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-16)
TRENKWALDER MODENA: Lee 9, Ciabattini (L), Tencati, Kooistra 4, Dennis 15, Sartoretti, Santos 2, Smuc 2, Travica 1, Siebeck 1, Endres 11, Casoli 5. Coach. Zanini Emanuele.
RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT PERUGIA: Kovacevic 7, Nemec 13, Serafini, Cruz De Carvalho 2, Sintini, Pippi (L), Vujevic 9, Fanuli (L), Bovolenta 2, Botti 9. DNP Savani, Felizardo, Stokr. Coach. Di Pinto Vincenzo.
Emanuele Zanini (Trenkwalder Modena): “We’re glad to have finished with a win, especially for our amazing fans. As for my future, I will meet Dare in the next few days. I am very motivated and I want to stay in Modena to get the team back where it belongs”.
Vincenzo Di Pinto (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “I wanted to make everybody play. We had prepared the game with the playoffs in mind and we are ready to play now”.
TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA – ACQUA PARADISO GABECA MONTICHIARI 3-0 (29-27, 25-17, 25-22)
TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA: Ditlevsen, Contreras 21, Cozzi 6, Sammelvuo 11, Vieira De Oliveira 1, Diaz Mayorca 17, Barone 7, Cicola (L). DNP Ferraro, Divis, Shumov, Bozidis. Coach. Uriarte Jon.
ACQUA PARADISO GABECA MONTICHIARI: Sala 9, Rauwerdink 5, Pesenti, Horstink 7, Tiberti, Esko 2, Howard 10, Gavotto 17, Mani� (L). DNP Forni, Mor, Bellei, Zito. Coach. Berruto Mauro.
Jon Uriarte (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “We’ve won this decisive game for the playoffs, which is a reward for all the efforts done. A great reward for the team, the club, and for our very special fans, who greatly helped us again against Montichiari. Now we have very little time before the playoffs and we have to find our concentration and be physically ready. Besides, if we could get Simeonov back that would be perfect”.
Mauro Berruto (Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari): “In the first set, my team played with the right determination, we made it difficult for our opponent. Then, Vibo did very well, and my boys probably faded after losing this first set. Let’s focus on the playoffs now”.
FRAMASIL PINETO – ANTONVENETA PADOVA 0-3 (23-25, 22-25, 18-25)
FRAMASIL PINETO: De Oliveira 4, Hietanen 3, Sborgia 2, Jago 7, Lampariello (L), Mancini (L), De Gennaro Leme, Rodrigo 18, Buti 6, Fabroni 1, Vigilante. DNP Fantin, Ravellino. Coach. Montagnani Paolo.
ANTONVENETA PADOVA: Garghella (L), De Togni 6, Raymaekers 1, Kral 4, Mattera 4, Perazzolo 7, Kromm 19, Maruotti 10. DNP Meggiolaro, Maniero. Coach. Bagnoli Bruno.
Rodrigo Pinto (Framasil Pineto): “I was very happy to receive the Gazzetta Trophy award. This is an acknowledgement of a positive season. The crowd was amazing, thank you to everyone”.
Bruno Bagnoli (Antonveneta Padova): “We were very nervous at the beginning of the game, but then we loosened up a but and find our rhythm. We played better and better and Kral did a good job to turn things round in our favour with a series of winning serve. In the second set, our opponent made the reserves play and they did not play at their best, while we were very motivated and nervous because we wanted to win at all cost. Forli last from bottom? Well, our main opponents did well to get some points from tough courts, which we haven’t done all season”.
