SuperLega UnipolSai
First return games
The beginning of the new year is packed with games not to be missed. First of all with Saturday’s league action and a spectacular Perugia versus Modena and then on January 6 with the Italian Cup quarter-finals.
SuperLega UnipolSai round 14 (first return round)
Saturday January 3 at 5.30pm
Sir Safety Perugia – Modena Volley Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Rapisarda-Tanasi)
Saturday January 3 at 8.30pm
CMC Ravenna – Copra Piacenza Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Bartolini-Vagni)
Calzedonia Verona – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Treia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(La Micela-Pozzato)
Exprivia Neldiritto Molfetta – Revivre Milano Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Sampaolo-Frapiccini)
Tonazzo Padova – Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Gini-Cipolla)
Vero Volley Monza – Top Volley Latina Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Braico-Ravallese)
Rested: Altotevere Città di Castello-Sansepolcro
League table
Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino 30, Modena Volley 30, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Treia 28, Sir Safety Perugia 27, Calzedonia Verona 22, Top Volley Latina 21, CMC Ravenna 19, Copra Piacenza 18, Exprivia Neldiritto Molfetta 13, Tonazzo Padova 7, Altotevere Città di Castello-Sansepolcro 7, Revivre Milano 6, Vero Volley Monza 6
Sir Safety Perugia – Modena Volley
The return games could not have started any better. We have a big one between Perugia and Modena, both qualified for the cup quarter-finals. The top four all stand within 3 points, the exact number that separates the two clubs. Modena lost its first place and has to be careful not to stumble against a Perugia team looking for its first major win over a top team.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (4-1 Perugia)
Andrea Giovi (Sir Safety Perugia): “We start the new year with a very difficult game against an in-form team that is above us in the table. This will be the first of a series of games in which we’ll play for important goals. Modena plays top level volleyball, they have extremely talented players. We’ll obviously try our best to take the points. We have been training very hard, we have belief in our ability, and we’ll be home with our amazing fans, we want to give them the first victory in 2015”.
Angelo Lorenzetti (coach Modena Volley): “This should be a tough but spectacular game. Useless to use too many words to describe them, they have so many top players, a great mix of young and experienced players that goes beyond Atanasijevic and De Cecco. This is one of two crucial moments of the year. We have trained every day during the Christmas holidays, the players worked hard, I can only be satisfied. The cup on Tuesday? Seems like a cliché but we have to see one game at a time without losing our focus. Useless to say we really want to make it in the final four, but right now we’re going to Perugia to try to win against a strong team”.
CMC Ravenna – Copra Piacenza
Thanks to a very solid performance against Milan, Ravenna secured its place in the cup quarter-finals (vs Modena). Cebulj and Zanatta made great plays and Kantor’s group had an excellent team display. This should be a tight and exciting encounter. Piacenza will look to bounce back from its defeat against Trento in the last one of 2014. They will also try to take revenge on the defeat against Ravenna in the first half of season. Zlatanov and co need a win to get into their revenge against Trento in the cup full of confidence. Luca Tencati will celebrate his 500th appearance in the league.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 7 (5-2 Piacenza)
Waldo Kantor (Coach CMC Ravenna): “At the end of the first half of season I can say I am totally satisfied. The players have always given it all, and except for a couple of rare episodes, the results have always been good too. Piacenza represents our first win in the league and the fact that we realized what we were capable of. However, Piacenza remains a stronger team than us, but we have proved that if we play at the best of our abilities we have our chance”.
Jacopo Massari (Copra Piacenza): “Tough game in Ravenna. They made it hard for us in the first meeting . Their outside hitter was outstanding, he’s really capable to take his team on his back. This will be an important encounter, a key game for us. Our target is to start as well as we can this second half of season to prepare for the Italian Cup quarter-final against Trento”.
Calzedonia Verona – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Treia
There won’t be any better way to welcome the new year than play host to the Italian Champions on the 400th game in the Serie A of the club’s history. A prestigious achievement of a story that began 14 years ago in the Serie A2 (September 2001) as the club never left the top level. The ice on the cake would be to beat the champs but Verona has not won this fixture since November 25, 2009. Treia got back on track at the end of 2014 with a win on Modena and they won’t want to fall again.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 24 (21-3 Treia)
Simone Anzani (Calzedonia Verona): “We start this second half of season against Treia. We’re still a bit disappointed with the first meeting in Macerata. We’re on a positive streak and we’ve been making big progress as a team though. We’re ready to give it all, while they’ll be full of confidence following their win over Modena. But we’re preparing this game as well as we can”.
Simone Parodi (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Treia): “Our goal is to start the year on a victory against a quality team on the road. This is the start of an intense period for us with the league and cup coming up. We need a first positive step before playing for the second trophy of the season. The win over Modena got us back on track after a few defeats and now we want to do as well in Verona’s PalaOlimpia arena”.
Exprivia Neldiritto Molfetta – Revivre Milano
The start and end of the first half of season were very positive for Molfetta. They started off with two wins over Milan and Città di Castello, and in the last rounds they beat Ravenna and Treia, going very close to qualify in the Italian Cup. They made some changes along the way, Puliti and Kooistra gone, in came Despaigne and Torres. As for Milan they will be more ambitious in this second part. They began the season with five straight losses but they made some big progress in the last few rounds, with great performances of outside hitter Milan Bencz, fifth in the scoring chart and just two points from the 2000 in regular season.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Molfetta)
Vincenzo Di Pinto (Coach Exprivia Neldiritto Molfetta): “This will be a very difficult game, more dangerous than the one against Treia. They strengthened their squad with the addition of Veres, an excellent players who does extremely well on the road. It’s dangerous as well because it’s coming in the middle of the holiday period, never an easy time to play. We have to play with the same attitude as in the last games, we have to take care of every detail”.
Marco Maranesi (Coach Revivre Milano): “Molfetta has made a few changes since our first meeting, like the outside hitter Torres, we’ll have to read his game as well as we can since he’s new. Molfetta is a tough team at home, I expect it to be a battle. In Ravenna, we struggled, especially physically, hopefully we’ll have used the last few days to recharge our batteries”.
Tonazzo Padova – Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino
Padova’s 2014 did not end too well. The loss against Monza really hurt as the club failed to get away from the followers Milan and Monza. Their goals will be to limit their mistakes and find consistency. But they face a tough run against Trentino, Modena, Treia and Perugia coming up. Trentino is the new leader, the winter champ thanks to its win over Piacenza and the debacle of Modena and Treia. Stoytchev’s men won the last four against Castello, Modena, Monza and Piacenza and Nemec was MVP in each of them.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 21 (17-4 Trento)
Stefano Santuz (Sport Director Tonazzo Padova): “Tomorrow’s game will be an opportunity to get back on track after our poor performance against Monza, even if we’ll face Trento who’s the most in-form team in the league right now. But it will be a test that will enable us to see how much progress we’ve made. Hopefully, in this second part of season we’ll play to the best of our potential”.
Emanuele Birarelli (Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino): “Taking the first place was a nice way to start the new year but it would be a big mistake to give any more meaning to this position than it really has. We have to keep working and playing like we’ve done until now. We cannot underestimate Padova despite the difference of points in the table. We’ll go to the PalaFabris to play our game and try to get maximum points”.
Vero Volley Monza – Top Volley Latina
Monza start over with a lot more energy thanks to the first win of the season obtained in the last round of 2014. The 3-1 obtained in Padova finally got them off the mark and now they’ll go after some more. Latina, sixth, will face two road games in a row, the second in the cup quarter-finals against Treia. Two games they’ll face with a lot of energy, having been rested in the last round.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Latina)
Claudio Bonati (Sport director Vero Volley Monza): “I’d like the win over Padova to be highlighted as an important date in the story of the consortium. If we think about where Monza was five years ago, and where it is now, we can see we made giant step forwards in a very little time. All this was possible mainly thanks to our president, to all the efforts he made every day and his passion for this sport. I hope this will be the first of many victories on and off the court. I think this season we found it hard at the start to adapt to the division as newly promoted team, we lacked an important and experienced player. On the positive side, there are players that came up and improved a lot. I think about Galliani who really got better in reception, but I also think about Elia, Botto and many others who have improved this season. You just have to look at our blocking, it went from being our weakness to become our strength. Each player got better and I think we will get more satisfaction from this second part of the season”.
Marco Franchi (Ass.coach Top Volley Latina): “This won’t be an easy road game, we’ll need to keep up with the positive results we had in the first half of season. But we have to focus exclusively on Monza right now and forget about the others. We won the first match, but a lot of time has gone by, and some changes were made. We have to focus on our game, when we do that we have some good outings. We’re happy with our sixth place and we want to keep doing as well, for us, the fans and the club”.
Serie A2 UnipolSai
First return game
Sora was named winter champ on Boxing day but now starts the return games on route to the playoffs and league title.
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