Serie A1
Opening round
The 69th Serie A championship will be under way on Sunday October 20, ready to launch a new season animated by the desire to innovate and surprise. Thanks to the common intent of the Italian Volleyball League and FIPAV, the twelve A1 court will be equipped with the Video Check which will keep track of the perimeter lines of the court. Rai Sport’s first live game will be Cuneo versus Perugia at 5.30pm. The other games will kick off at 6pm except for Trentino versus Latina which was postpone to November 21 due to Trentino’s participation in the World Club Championships.
Serie A1 round 1
Sunday October 20 at 5.30pm
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Sir Safety Perugia Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Sunday October 20 at 6pm
Casa Modena – CMC Ravenna Live on Sportube.tv
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Calzedonia Verona
Altotevere Città di Castello – Copra Elior Piacenza
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Exprivia Molfetta
Postponed to November 21 at 8.30pm
Diatec Trentino – Andreoli Latina
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Sir Safety Perugia
Third meeting in history. With Wijsmans and Grbic gone respectively in China and Russia, Cuneo welcomed back the setters Coscione and Gonzalez. However, they will not be available, the first will be eligible from round 4, and the second is injured. The Netherlander Nico Freriks will therefore play setter. Cuneo’s other signings of the summer are called Rouzier, De Togni, Rauwerdink and Maruotti. On the other side of the net, coach Kovac promises a great season as the team is eager to improve on their 6th position. The team has a clear Serbian soul with Petric, captain Vujevic (third season) and the newcomers Mitic (setter), Atanasijevic (top scorer in the last European Championships) and outside hitter Cupkovic. As for the Italians, there are the middle blockers Barone and Buti (former Vibo player), spiker Della Lunga and libero Fanuli.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (1 each)
Roberto Piazza (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re beginning a season with a team we thought would be built around setter Grbic, who is now gone to Russia. I’m not making any excuses ahead of any possible loss, on the contrary, this has to give us that extra motivation to work hard and make sure our target remains the same. This will be a complicated season, because all the teams got stronger. And Perugia is one that became really strong with Atanasijevic and the middle blockers Buti and Barone”.
Dore Della Lunga (Sir Safety Perugia): “Clearly a difficult game, the first away from home against a team that has lost a couple of important players, but which definitely has a good squad. Grbic’s departure means they lost that understanding with the setter, but I know some of the players and coach and I’m sure they’ll have a good season, they’ll be up there in the top positions. As for us, we’re in good shape. We finally have our full squad, although Atanasijevic had very few days to work with the setters, and after so many trips, he is far from hundred percent. But we’re working well, we’re physically fine, we have a good basis to play a good debut game. Cuneo will obviously not give anything away but we’ll try to get a good result right away”.
Casa Modena – CMC Ravenna
A derby to start with at Modena, which brought in some quality international players like German setter Kampa, Polish outside hitter Bartman, and middle blocker Beretta. Important changes as well for Ravenna as Porto and Robur Angelo Costa teamed up to make it one solid club, which will be guided by coach Bonitta. Libero Bari, the two French men Tillie-Toniutti and middle blocker Cester should be the name that will stand out.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 61 (49-12 Modena)
Angelo Lorenzetti (Coach Casa Modena): “That’s a lot of emotions together: especially the excitement and the curiosity. The boys have worked extremely hard until today, that is a fact. Now it’s time to see them in action: what we can and have to do is just to try to do our best. Ravenna is a city I really like, I have great memories from this club, but I have to say that in the past two years both with Piacenza and Modena, Ravenna has ‘played tricks’ on us. The team is different from last season, they have played some good volleyball in the friendly games, the club is ambitious and it seems like they have the French touch in it”.
Marco Bonitta (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’re going to Modena with good spirit, extremely motivated to get a result, even if we know we’ll be up against a very tough team in a heated atmosphere in a historical gym, in which you can breathe the tradition of Italian volleyball”.
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Calzedonia Verona
Vibo Valentia will have Slovenian Miha Plot instead of Farina for the first three rounds. In the team there will be the two Spaniards Villena and Trinidad De Haro, the star of the Italian Junior team Randazzo and the experienced Cisolla, while the main name on the Verona squad has to be the one of the new coach Andrea Giani. He will count on the pair Gasparini-Boninfante, and Bellei’s return, the new spiker White, the re-signed Zingel and Horst, as well as promising young players.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 25 (14-11 Vibo Valentia).
Gianlorenzo Blengini (Coach Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “We did a great job during the whole pre-season. But pre-season is totally different from the league, for many reasons. First of all, the clubs have their full squad, which is not the case in pre-season. This means, all teams still have to work on their game. Anyway, it would be nice to start with a positive result, this would give us great motivation. So hopefully, this home debut will go like it went the last two times I was on the Vibo bench, we had won on both occasions, but I know that the first one is always difficult”.
Andrea Giani (Coach Calzedonia Verona): “We’re all very excited, there’s always a lot of adrenaline at the start of a new season. A lot of emotions that are great to experience. Last year, I only worked with the National team so I am extremely motivated and happy to be back working with a club. I have taken over a very interesting team, young, in a club that is doing everything possible to get better and improve on the previous year’s results. We have a lot of targets to reach, and what I like the most is the enthusiasm there is around the team. This is a first game, so many teams, like ours, will need time to play together and understand where they stand. We will find out in the first 5-6 games. The difference between us and Vibo Valentia will depend on the unforced errors we’ll make. We’ll have to work on our main strengths to win this game”.
Altotevere Città di Castello – Copra Elior Piacenza
The newborn Altotevere Città di Castello will make its debut in San Giustino with several players who were protagonists in the superb promotion earned last season by Città di Castello: Fromm, Van Walle, Massari, Sartoretti and Piano. Radici remains the coach as his team will take on a Piacenza team led by captain Zlatanov. They have not changed a lot since their league final. Holt gone, Fei comes in. Kaliberda and Le Roux are quality additions.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Andrea Radici (Coach Altotevere Città di Castello): “It’s difficult to describe all the emotions that many people have right now, those people whose will got them at this level. We know Piacenza has a roster full of stars, the fans will be able to admire them and support us. Volleyball is a sport made of situations, and it is not seldom that the differences at the start of the season are slimmer. That’s how a team like ours, which worked very hard for two months to be competitive at the start, could have a few of those situations going its way”.
Luca Monti (Coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “We’ll begin in the house of the newly promoted side Città di Castello. This will definitely not be an easy game, which is why we’re working extremely focused. We’re not underestimating this game, we know how good they are. We’re preparing the game well, we’re putting in the effort. Città di Castello has always played well, they are used to winning and they have excellent players. Besides, they signed a top player in Antonio Corvetta, who added a lot of quality to our squad last year, we have maximum respect for him”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Exprivia Molfetta
Big changes in Macerata with Baranowicz coming in for Travica and Kurek for Savani. Important renewals too with Italian intenrationals Parodi, Kovar and captain Zaytsev staying, just like the Serbians Stankovic and Podrascanin. Paparoni and Patriarca are back in the Marche region. As for Molfetta, they brought in a lot of experience for their first ever A1 campaign: Piscopo, casoli, Zanuto and De Marchi, who will be surrendered by some young faces: Sabbi, Cesarini and Mazzone. Blagojevic and Fornes are the two new foreigners.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Bartosz Kurek (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “We want to get off to a good start in front of our fans. Molfetta was promoted from the A2 but we know they’ll give everything they have. But we’re ready and determined to get on the right track from day one. We have a good group and in those first few days of training all together I could see we were constantly making progress”.
Antonio Antonaci (President Exprivia Molfetta): “This is a dream come true for us, a dream we’ll experience on Sunday. It’s really an unbelievable emotion but we’re starting to turn it into concentration. We’ll be up against a fantastic team full of brilliant international players. We’ll need to fight on every point, and keep our heads high. I am sure this will be a great game, and there will be over a hundred fans coming over to Macerata”.
Serie A2
Round 1
The time of friendly games is over. The fight for a place in the elite starts now. Two tickets at stake, for the regular season winner and then whoever will be the strongest in the playoffs.
Itely Milano – Vero Volley Monza. Big derby right from the get-go between the rookie of Milan and Monza. Both teams have put together rosters to be right up there competing with the bests.
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – B-Chem Potenza Picena. New roster, new staff and new ambition for Sora in its fifth consecutive season in the A2. Marco Fenoglio was given the tough task to bring the team up and to do so he brought four foreigners from San Giustino: Fiore, Gutmann, Gradi and Lo Bianco (injured). Part of his recruiting was fed by Perugia: Daldello, Tamburo and Tomasetti. Potenza, who managed to stay up in its first A2 season, will have a full-Italian roster. Moretti and Romiti are the main insertions.
Tonazzo Padova – Sieco Service Ortona. Bladovin took over the Padova bench. Last year’s playoff finalists have changed half their roster with the arrivals of Orduna, Groppi, Paoli and Mattei. The biggest crowd of 2012-13 will welcome Ortona, who boasts the addition of spikers Bruno, Gemmi and Galliani.
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte – Sidigas HS Avellino. The Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte is back in the A2 five years after their last experience at this level. Born out of an excellent youth program, they will present the youngest side with 22 years average: 12 Under23 players will play around the 3 experienced ones: Cazzaniga, Castellano and Benito Ruiz. Totire will lead last year’s A2 cup winners Avellino at the PalaGrotte. Only three players stayed Scappaticcio, Cortina and Libraro, while the highlight of the summer must come from the signing of Slovakian outside hitter Milan Bencz.
Cassa Rurale Cantù – Elettrosud Brolo. Just one year in the B1 division was enough to earn promotion at the level above for Cantù, which will bring on court a team composed hundred per cent of Italians. Brolo called upon coach Cannestracci to improve on last year’s result when the club finished second last. Visentin (promoted with Città di Castello in A1) and Gromadowski (back in Italy after his spell in Piacenza and Bologna from 2007 to 2009) will be Brolo’s main assets.
Caffè Aiello Corigliano – Coserplast Openet Matera. Many new faces in Corigliano, only three contract renewals (Fabrini, Tomasello and Bortolozzo). Former Pineto and Latina player Balabinov is back in the serie A, he will be surrendered by young Italian athletes like Borgogno and Tartaglione. Gervasio was promoted to head coach following Torchio’s departure in Belgium. As for Matera, they enter into their second year in the A2 with many changes too. Suglia and libero Casulli are the only two staying, while the main signings are Mastrangelo and middle blockers Giosa, Luppi and Granito. The foreigners Luis Fernando and Netherlander Tony Krolis as well as Marretta, Pedron and Sette complete the roster.
World Club Championships 2013
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