Serie A1
Round 19
The month of March will begin with Perugia versus Ravenna in round 19 on Saturday. The action will continue on Sunday with some exciting games like Molfetta taking on Piacenza and the leaders Macerata home against Verona. Latina’s game in Modena was postponed due to its Challenge Cup commitment. They play this Sunday in Turkey in the semi-final first leg against Istanbul BBSK.
This weekend will be the opportunity for the Italian Volleyball League and its clubs to show their support to the UNIAMO (Italian Federation against Rare Diseases).
Serie A1 Round 19
Saturday March 1 at 5.30pm
Sir Safety Perugia – CMC Ravenna Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Cipolla-Boris)
Sunday March 2 at 5.30pm
Exprivia Molfetta – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming www.raisport.rai.it
(Perri-Cesare)
Sunday March 2 at 6pm
Diatec Trentino – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
(Zucca-Sobrero)
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Calzedonia Verona Live on Sportube.tv
(Satanassi-Santi)
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Altotevere Città di Castello
(Rapisarda-Padoan)
Postponed to Tuesday March 11 at 8.30pm
Casa Modena – Andreoli Latina
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 49, Copra Elior Piacenza 48, Sir Safety Perugia 39, Diatec Trentino 33, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 26, Altotevere Città di Castello 25, Calzedonia Verona 25, Casa Modena 25, CMC Ravenna 20, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 19, Exprivia Molfetta 15, Andreoli Latina 15.
1 game in hand: CMC Ravenna, Exprivia Molfetta
Sir Safety Perugia – CMC Ravenna
The Rai Sport cameras will be in Perugia to broadcast the clash with Ravenna on Saturday. Perugia consolidated its 3rd place with a six-point advantage on Trento thanks to its great consistency week in week out. Petric’s next point will be his 1000th. As for Ravenna, they’re coming off a loss against Piacenza which stopped a four-game winning streak. They are currently 9th, five points behind the first playoff spot. Middle blocker Mengozzi will reach 1500 points scored in the league if he adds three more.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (3-2 Perugia)
Carmine Fontana (Assistant coach Sir Safety Perugia): “Ravenna proved in recent games they were at their best. Even on Wednesday, they kept it tight, as their many stars shined and fought on every point. I have in mind their good spikers on high balls, like Klapwijk, who’s in great shape, and I’m thinking of their game on the break with many servers, they can do floaters too and make it very hard for anyone. We’re doing well too, and we’ll build our game on our serve as usual, and on the break in an attempt to contain Ravenna with our qualities. This will be a complicated encounter but fascinating at the same time like all the games left from Saturday to the end. That’s the way it should be, we’ll have to put maximum intensity into it”.
Marco Bonitta (Coach CMC Ravenna): “Perugia represents another very tough test for us, even more so considering we have just played against Piacenza. However, it is precisely the level of play seen against Piacenza that should give us more confidence to look for points in a game in which our opponent are clearly the favourites”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Copra Elior Piacenza
In the last round, Molfetta obtained its first road win of the season and the first victory in this second half of season. That coincided with a record game of Giulio Sabbi, who became the best ever scorer in one single game with 42 points. As for Zlatanov and co, they’re back in the cup final four after five years out, they’ll want to show what they’re made of as they also chase Macerata in the league.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Piacenza)
Cristian Casoli (Exprivia Molfetta): “The performance against Verona gave us a boost ahead of this game against another top team of this league. This time we’ll be home, though. We’re giving everything we have in training, we know what we can do, and we hope to get a little higher in this end of season”.
Luca Monti (Coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “Following its win in Verona, Molfetta will be up for it and determined. We will continue to use the turnover as we’ll have the Italian cup ahead of us. This time, the ones to start the game will be Zlatanov-Kaliberda and Fei-Simon. I took this decision in order to be in the best possible shape for next Saturday’s game against Trento, on March 8, which will represent one of the most important encounters of our season”.
Diatec Trentino – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
Trentino stopped the bleeding with two points taken in Città di Castello in the last round. New signing Van Dijk will make its home debut as he came in to strengthen a squad decimated by injuries. He did not disappoint the expectations in his first game: he scored 20 (three aces and one block). Vibo is another team troubled by injuries and illnesses and that greatly influenced their league form. It was once seventh but has only gathered one win in the return games. It is now tenth and six points from the playoff zone. Gavotto is 4 points from the 5000 in the league.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 25 (21-4 Trento)
Filippo Lanza (Diatec Trentino): “We got back on track against Città di Castello, winning on a tough court. We want to continue like that against Vibo to prove that the recent problems we had are now behind us. We know it won’t be easy because Vibo plays good volleyball but we must play as Trento does, especially with the Italian Cup final four coming up”.
Frantisek Ogurcak (Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “Nell’ultimo match con Perugia non avevamo niente da perdere. Stiamo provando a dare il massimo in una situazione difficile in virtù dei tanti infortuni e credo che anche nella gara di domenica scorsa si sia intravisto. Il nostro obiettivo è conquistare più punti possibile nelle ultime tre partite di Campionato. Trento è una squadra che non ha bisogno di presentazioni, giocano con un nuovo opposto che avrà voglia di ben figurare davanti al proprio pubblico, ma noi andiamo al PalaTrento per cercare una vittoria che in trasferta ci manca tanto”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Calzedonia Verona
It’s first versus seventh, and many players back against their former clubs. Verona will look for a breakthrough against Macerata, still unbeaten at home and looking to keep Piacenza behind. Verona must turn things around after 6 losses in the last 8 and its playoff position still under threat.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 20 (17-3 Macerata)
Stefano Patriarca (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “This will be an important game to test ourselves before the Cup Final Four in Bologna next weekend. We want the three points to stay top of the league, Verona cannot be underestimated, they proved they could play excellent volleyball this season. We’ll have to be very careful: we need to watch out for their blocking and serve, which are their main strengths”.
Andrea Giani (Coach Calzedonia Verona): “We’ll be up against the league leaders, we’ll use it to improve our rhythm. It’s always exciting to test yourself against a team of this level filled with so many stars. We want to play a good game, it will be tough because Macerata will certainly not give us anything”.
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Altotevere Città di Castello
Both beaten in the previous round. Città di Castello has never won in Cuneo in three attempts. Swept by Ravenna, Cuneo will try to get back to the kind of form that brought them up to fifth. Città di Castello threatens, just one point behind, thanks to a superb second half of season: already 14 points taken compared to the 11 of the whole first half.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (All Cuneo)
Javier Gonzalez (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “We played poorly in the last round and Ravenna deserved to win it. We have to forget about it and redeem ourselves on Sunday. We will face Città di Castello with motivation, we need to get back the points we lost on the way. We’ll really need those points now given the situation in the league table. Hopefully the gym will be packed”.
Andrea Rossi (Altotevere Città di Castello): “We have improved compared to the first half of season. We’re going to Cuneo with more confidence. This is a special game for me, I underlined it on the calendar at the start of the season because I’ll be back in the city where I spent six years of my life. Hopefully, I’ll have a great game with my teammates”.
Serie A2
Round 20
Caffè Aiello Corigliano – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora. Corigliano will try to put an end to its negative run (5 straight losses) and start enjoying its volleyball again. Beaten last week, direct promotion is out of reach for Sora. Daldello is doubtful, he had already missed last week’s game.
Coserplast Openet Matera – Sieco Service Ortona. Matera is back to the superb level it boasted at the start of the season. Some players recovered from injury and that led to 6 points in the last two outings. Matera will try to defend fourth place from Ortona’s assault. The later had a convincing performance against Sora last week and is just one point behind.
B-Chem Potenza Picena – Cassa Rurale Cantù. Defeated twice against the top two teams of the league on the road, Potenza will now face direct rivals fighting for sixth place. A key game as both teams aim at being in the top seven to avoid the playoffs 8th of finals.
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte – Tonazzo Padova. Padova will try to extend its lead at the top as the runner-up, Monza, is rested this weekend. Castellana is going through a very positive run, having put together a string of three consecutive wins. Besides, they are extremely effective on home ground, having beaten teams like Ortona, Corigliano and Sora, while Monza needed a tie-break to clinch it. <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; COLOR: #464646; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-langua
