Serie A1 Sustenium
Round 20
Following the thrilling Cup weekend that ended with the triumph of Trentino, the Serie A is back this weekend. For the occasion, the Italian Volleyball League will support the Uniamo Association, which fights against rare diseases. The weekend will start on Saturday with Belluno versus Monza, which will have Tsimafei Zhukouski Back after four months out. It’s sixth versus fifth as the fifth and even fourth place are at stake. Indeed, currently fourth, Modena will defend its position in the big game of the weekend against Macerata.
Serie A1 Sustenium Round 20
Saturday February at 5.30pm
Sisley Belluno – Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html
(Pasquali-Vagni)
Sunday February 26 at 5.30pm
Casa Modena – Lube Banca Marche Macerata Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html
(Cesare-Caltabiano)
Sunday February 26 at 6pm
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Energy Resources San Giustino
(Boris-Puecher)
CMC Ravenna – Itas Diatec Trentino
(Bartolini-Cappello)
Andreoli Latina – M. Roma Volley
(Rapisarda-Saltalippi)
Marmi Lanza Verona – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on Sportube.tv
(Sampaolo-Pol)
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Fidia Padova
(Ippoliti-Castagna)
Classifica
Itas Diatec Trentino 50, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 40, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 39*, Casa Modena 35, Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza 34, Sisley Belluno 32, Copra Elior Piacenza 26, Marmi Lanza Verona 25, M. Roma Volley 24, Andreoli Latina 23, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 22, Energy Resources San Giustino 19, Fidia Padova 18, CMC Ravenna 9*
*1 game in hand: Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo, CMC Ravenna
Sisley Belluno – Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 66 (52-14 Belluno)
Roberto Piazza (coach Sisley Belluno): “We’ll face a totally different team compared to last week. I expect an open and tight encounter. We have made mistakes against various teams lately, while they seem to be at their best. They’re going through a great moment of form and they had two weeks to prepare the game. As for the rest, there aren’t much difference between us and Monza, especially in terms of point made. Since the first time we met, they added Facundo Conte to their roster, a great player that form a superb partnership with De Cecco. They’ve been playing together for years, in the national team too, they can hurt you with fast balls or from the second line. We’ll try to make it difficult for their setter by serving hard”.
Emanuele Zanini (coach Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza): “A difficult away game, they are only two points behind us and they managed to qualify for the Italian Cup Final Four, so we perfectly know their worth. In the first leg, they had given us a lesson of volleyball in our gym so we’ll be keen to take revenge although we know it won’t be easy. We needed a rest and time to work in a certain way but at the same time you always lose a little something when you don’t play for 15 days. I think it is impossible to find a team at the top of its form all year long. At times, there are external factors that can influence the game. When we first met Belluno, they played very well, but we had various starters in precarious fitness condition. I am extremely happy to have Tsimafei Zhukouski bask with us, he worked extremely hard to get back on court in record time”.
Casa Modena – Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 58 (31-27 Modena)
Marco Piscopo (Casa Modena): “Macerata is playing at a very high level. Trento and Macerata are a notch above the others right now. Our first target is to play at the best of our ability because Modena has a lot of quality and they want to bounce back. We’re looking for a good performance, each one of us will have to give the best he has and we’ll need to be at the top as a team too. The serve could be key once again. They serve really hard, but we can and have to be aggressive too from the start. The fans that come to see us at home and away deserve to see the best of us”.
Jean-Francois Exiga (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “The first thing we need to keep in mind is that the recent victory obtained against Modena in the cup has nothing to do with this coming encounter. This will be a whole new game, they’ll be extremely motivated, keen to take revenge, besides they’ll be pushed by their home fans. We’re coming off a rather long negative run. We need a win at all cost, because even a single point could make the difference in the fight for second place”.
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Energy Resources San Giustino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 20 (15-5 Cuneo)
Nikola Grbic (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re currently third, just one point behind Macerata, but we have a game in hand, the one against Ravenna. Against San Giustino, we’ll need to put into practice all the hard work we’ve done in recent weeks, taking advantage of the cup break. We have worked very hard and we should see the results on court. Following my finger injury, I started to train regularly again and I think I am ready”.
Andrea Sartoretti (Sport Director Energy Resources San Giustino): “The game against Cuneo will be very tough. They are third in the league and we’re going in their arena. But we’re working with confidence, we have all the players available, we’ll just go there to play our game”.
CMC Ravenna – Itas Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Trento)
Antonio Babini (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’re up against Trento, the team that wrote the last five years of Italian and European volleyball history. So maximum respect and admiration but no adulation, because we’ll have to give our best and try to make it as difficult as possible for them”.
Raphael De Oliveira (Itas Diatec Trentino): “After the two match-ups against Macerata we have to rediscover ourselves in the league. Sunday’s game in Ravenna is the perfect occasion to do so because, more than the three points, we’ll try to have a good performance to prepare ourselves tactically and mentally for the Champions League return leg against Macerata. We have to work a lot on our game, Ravenna is the ideal test”.
Andreoli Latina – M. Roma Volley
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 10 (8-2 Roma)
Murphy Troy (Andreoli Latina): “I think this will be a good game. We’re both coming off defeats and we’ll be eager to win this one. When we first met, we won the first two sets before losing it at the tie-break. In these last seven games, everyone will give their best, everyone will play to win. Difficult to predict Sunday’s game.
Novica Bjelica (M. Roma Volley): “I think this will be a very tight game, just like in the first leg when we won 3-2 on a superb come-back. The two teams are very close in the league so it should be tight. We had two weeks to work and correct what had not worked in the last game against San Giustino. I would have liked to play immediately after that loss, but the cup break made it impossible. At least we had time to prepare the game well, but Latina too. Latina is a club I really like because they were the one to give me my first chance”.
Marmi Lanza Verona – Copra Elior Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 17 (12-5 Piacenza)
Marco Meoni (Marmi Lanza Verona): “This is always an emotional game, especially for me as I have good memories from my time in Piacenza. I’m sure there will be good volleyball. We’re working with great intensity for this game and we want to show character, to believe in our ability and ready to play a good game for our fans. This will be a tough game because Piacenza is firing on all cylinders right now and they have top class players”.
Maxwell Philip Holt (Copra Elior Piacenza): “We need to play a top quality game. We’re coming off four consecutive wins but Verona is a top quality team with character. They will try to win it to move up to seventh”.
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Fidia Padova
PAST ENCOUNTER: 9 (8-1 Vibo)
Michal Rak (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “We’ve been training hard for two weeks, it’s been very useful because we had the chance to work on our game to be all ready for Sunday’s match The game against San Giustino will surely be intense and hard-fought, given they also had a lot of time to prepare themselves. This will be an intense game, a true battle, we’ll see who comes out on top”.
Paolo Montagnani (coach Fidia Padova): “Right now our priority is to get all the injured players back on their feet and hopefully we’ll have everybody fit for the Vibo Valentia game. Playing there is no easy task, they are desperate for points. They want to make sure they stay up as soon as possible. But we are as desperate as them, so we’ll surely see an intense encounter, no matter who will be on court”.
Serie A2 Sustenium
Round 25
Last round before the A2 Cup Final Four weekend to take place in Andria on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March.
Gherardi SVI Città di Castello – Cassa Rurale Cantù. Live on SportItalia 2, Città di Castello hosts Cantù. Both teams are coming off away wins.
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – Carige Genova. Sora will try to leapfrog Genova, its opponent of the day. Sora has a game in hand, to be played on March 3 against Reggio Emilia. Both teams lost away games at the tie-break last week.
Sidigas Atripalda – NGM Mobile Santa Croce. Atripalda recently got out of the danger zone and will want to add a second consecutive home win as they take on Santa Croce, which have done nothing but tie-breaks in this second half of championship (8). They have not won a three-point match since December 8 against Cantù.
Energy Resources Carilo Loreto – CheBanca! Milano. Beaten away against Corigliano, Loreto hosts the Milan of coach Luca Moretti, who was at Loreto in 2008-09.
Crazy Diamond Segrate – Caffè Aiello Corigliano. Both recently put an end to a bad run (three straight losses for Segrate and six for Corigliano). The debut of coach Eccheli in the derby against Milan was positive, but it won’t be easy against a team eager to keep moving up the table.
Pallavolo Molfetta – Cicchetti Isernia. Both coming off a three-point win. Molfetta is keeping up the pace behind the top two, while Isernia got closer to the middle of the table, just three point from the 11th place, the first playoff spot.
Club Italia Roma – Sir Safety Perugia. The leaders Perugia will try to bounce back in Bracciano following the tie-break loss in Castellana Grotte. Club Italia is fighting to come out of the playout zone and make it into the top 11 to be in the playoffs.
Edilesse Conad Reggio Emilia – BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte. Reggio Emilia is in need of points to get away
