Games are succeeding each other fast and furious in this 65th Serie A1 league. The second round hardly over, winners and losers have neither time to celebrate nor regret. Indeed, on Wednesday night, they are back on court for the first of six midweek meetings. The Italian champs, currently top, travel to Cuneo. Treviso and Macerata, both with successful home debut, will face tricky away games respectively in Vibo VAlentia and Perugia.
3rd round
Wednesday 7 October at 8.30pm
Trenkwalder Modena – Andreoli Latina
(Boris-Bartolini)
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Lube Banca Marche Macerata
(Gnani-Satanassi)
Esse-ti Carilo Loreto – Marmi Lanza Verona
(Pasquali-Santi)
Itas Diatec Trentino – Acqua Paradiso Monza
(Padoan-Pol)
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – CoprAtlantide Piacenza
(Rapisarda-Saltalippi)
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Sisley Treviso
(Castagna-Pessolano)
Prisma Taranto – Yoga Forlì
(Perri-Ippoliti)
Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto – Rested
No TV broadcast
League table
CoprAtlantide Piacenza 6, Sisley Treviso, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 5, Trenkwalder Modena 4, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, Prisma Taranto, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo, Marmi Lanza Verona, Itas Diatec Trentino 3, RPA-Luigibacchi.it Perugia 2, Acqua Paradiso Monza, Esse-ti Carilo Loreto 1, Andreoli Latina, Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto, Yoga Forlì 0.
Note: 1 Game in hand: Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, Acqua Paradiso Monza, Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto, Yoga Forlì.
Trenkwalder Modena – Andreoli Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 14 (8-6 Modena)
Dick Kooy (Trenkwalder Modena): “Spiriti s good following our win in Verona, but we know i twill be tough against Latina. Here in Italy, all the teams are top level and every game is a battle. I like to play in front of our fans. To win we will need to repeat Sunday’s performance and keep hundred focus from start to finish. Personally, I am very happy with the start of the season. I think about working hard in training everyday and be ready for the coach”.
Leondino Giombini (Andreoli Latina): “We have to focus on gathering points. Against Modena we won’t have the pressure we had last Sunday playing such an important game in front of our fans. Playing staright away on Wednesday is an advantage because it gives you the opportunity to forget quickly about Sunday’s game and focus on the next. Modena is an excellent team and a great club”.
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 16 (14-2 Macerata)
Andrea Sartoretti (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “Macerata will be another good test in this phase of building our team and our identity. We have to work on our weaknesses in order to aim high. Treviso made them clear so we’ll try to improve against Macerata. We have to learn from the negative moments not to repeat them”.
Marko Podrascanin (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Perugia is the first of a series of difficult games for us. We will have to put into practice all the good things we have done recently, but trying to further improve too. We did a good job of taking the game in our hands in the key moments against Pineto, but we still made a lot of mistakes. We will have to cut down on them in the next few games. Perugia is an excellent team that can aim high. This will be a good test for us”.
Esse-ti Carilo Loreto – Marmi Lanza Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 9 (3 successi Loreto, 6 Verona)
Luca Moretti (Esse-ti Carilo Loreto): “We will play at home and in front of our fans we have to try to gain as many points as possible against every team. Verona could be a team against which we could get a result, even if we have to forget they managed to beat Cuneo 3-0 in the first round. We will face this game with the determination of a team hungry for points”.
Gabriele Cottarelli (Marmi Lanza Verona): “Our tour de force starts here. It will be three very intense weeks. Wednesday’s game will definitely not be one of the easiest, because Loreto will have to use its home games as its main weapon to stay up. It already proved against Treviso that it is a team to fear at home”.
Itas Diatec Trentino – Acqua Paradiso Monza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: Given that the club just settled in Monza, there are no past meetings between the two teams.
Emanuele Birarelli (Itas Diatec Trentino): “This beginning of league is very tight and full of suprises. There are no easy games any more, especially at the start of the season, so the Monza game won’t be easy. Monza will be willing to show its worth after a good point in Perugia and a week to rest. The will head north to Trento to make it difficult for us, like they did in pre-season friendlies. We have to bounce back following our poor performance in Vibo Valentia, we want to get back on track right away. It will surely be a good game”.
Mauro Berruto (Acqua Paradiso Monza): “We know we are facing the European champs in Trento. They will want to redeem themselves following their defeat in Vibo Valentia and will be even tougher to play. In any case, our aim remains the same. We haven’t got much alternative, we have to play well all the time to gather as many points as possible to add up to our tally in the league table”.
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – CoprAtlantide Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 27 (17-10 Cuneo)
Nikola Grbic (Bre Banca Lannutti): “Our calendar is tough and intense, not only for the number of games to face in few days but also for the quality of the opponents we will come across. We are a new team, we have so many things to sort out, understandings to find and few training sessions at our disposal to speed up the process. Piacenza is the most in-form team of all, they have the same players as last year and they have had all their players to work with this summer. This will be a difficult game. To win it, we will need a little extra at an individual level. The kind of game you win with your heart”.
Giovanni Rossi (CoprAtlantide Piacenza): “We are in good shape, Bravo and Rak have both recovered and are back, but we don’t want to take any risk with all those games in very few days. We can’t train so much, October will be handled like a period of playoffs, in terms of work intensity and rest. Cuneo has an excellent pair setter-outside hitter. The players know each other from their spell at Trento and, overall, their team play seems better to me than last season”.
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Sisley Treviso
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 11 (10-1 Treviso)
Rob Bontje (Sisley Treviso): “We are improving, we saw it against Perugia, but we still have many steps forward to make. Now we are facing a real tour de force. The Vibo away game is very tricky because they tend to step up a level at home. We’ll have to stay as mentally strong as Sunday, when we kept focused and had a good attitude. Careful at their serve, they will surely try to put us under pressure from the start”.
Ventceslav Simeonov (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “Hopefully, my teammates will make another great performance like the one against Trento, even if I realise Treviso is a great club, they are strong and they will come to get all three points. Sunday’s victory gave us a lot of confidence and that was obvious in yesterday’s training, the atmosphere was great. It’s very hard not to be able to take part, I am now back in training and hopefully I’ll be back on court with my teammates very soon”.
Prisma Taranto – Yoga Forlì
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 8 (4 each)
Paolo Cozzi (Prisma Taranto): “We found a bit of continuity in our game against Latina and this is what we have to build on. We should not underestimate Forli. They have prepared for the top division this summer, they have good and experienced players in the A1 like Coscione. We need to aim for the win, playing with composure”.
Piero Molducci (Yoga Forlì): “I didn’t expect much more from the Cuneo game. There was a lot of positive, let’s build on that. Carrol? The emotion had the best of him, that can happen in the first game, and that was also against a top team like Cuneo. He has been excellent in training, I’m sure he will do well in Taranto. It’s an important game, we will play face to face”.
