SuperLega UnipolSai
Round 3 preview
The big game of round 3 has to be Perugia versus Trento. The hosts bounced back from a defeat in the opening round with reassuring performances against Milan and in the CEV Cup 16th of finals first leg against the Czechs of Karlovarsk. Their target will be to beat Trento to catch them in the table with 6 points. As for the Italian Champs, they’ll try to stay unbeaten. They have been without Tine Urnaut, but also won in the Champions League against Maaseik (Belgium). Special game for Birarelli, who used to play at Trento and won everything there (2007 to 2015). He’s also close to one thousand spikes in Serie A.
Another important game is Molfetta versus Verona. The southerners took four points so far thanks to a home win over Romagna last week. As for Verona, they were severely defeated by Modena in record time after their initial breakthrough in Perugia. However, they bounced back in a forwarded game of round 4 on Wednesday by defeating Latina in straight sets with Taylor Sander and Uros Kovacevic as stand-out performers.
If we look at the stats and past encounters, we’d say Modena faces an easy one against Milan, who stands bottom and without a set. But Lorenzetti’s men must be cautious, as they might be tired from the Champions League win gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Milan has yet to get a win but they’re in good shape, and they’ve just sealed a new partnership with Axerta. Besides, they let the young Serbian Borovnjak go and signed Kamil Baranek, a spiker who played in Trento and Forlì and his last two seasons with Tours and Galatasaray.
Piacenza could not add to his first three initial points in Civitanova last week. The club is ready to celebrate Papi’s 8000 points. Padova made it very hard for Trento in the last round thanks to 25 points from Stefano Giannotti.
Both Civitanova and Latina have 5 points in the table. Civitanova have put together three straight wins in the league and European cup (vs Roeselare). Latina’s super start of the season came to a halt in mid-week when they were swept by Verona is a forwarded game of round 4. The excellent performances of Bulgarian Viktor Yosifov represents the silver lining.
A match to turn things around for both Monza and Romagna, both stuck with one little point and looking for their first win of the season. While Romagna had a step back in Molfetta compared to the intensity shown at home against Civitanova, Monza is coming off two generous performances: they played face to face for almost two sets against the champs of Trento, while they were very close to win it at the tie-break in Latina.
SuperLega UnipolSai Round 3
Sunday 8 November at 5pm
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Diatec Trentino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Sobrero-Pol)
Sunday 8 November at 6pm
Exprivia Molfetta – Calzedonia Verona Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Piana-Gnani)
DHL Modena – Revivre Milano Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Frapiccini-Sampaolo)
LPR Piacenza – Tonazzo Padova Live on Lega Volley Channel
(La Micela-Pozzato)
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova – Ninfa Latina Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Santi-Satanassi)
Gi Group Monza – CMC Romagna Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Vagni-Braico)
League table
Diatec Trentino 6, Calzedonia Verona 6*, DHL Modena 5, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova 5, Ninfa Latina 5*, Exprivia Molfetta 4, LPR Piacenza 3, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 3, Gi Group Monza 1, CMC Romagna 1, Tonazzo Padova 0, Revivre Milano 0
*1 more game: Calzedonia Verona, Ninfa Latina
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 11 (9-2 Trento)
Simone Buti (Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “This will be a beautiful Sunday, we’ll play the Italian champions, it’s always a special game. We expect the fans to come in numbers, hopefully we’ll have a great game and win it. We had two weeks to work in the gym since the opening game of the season. We know each other better, we’ve been working to find each other better, we’ll certainly be a little more prepared against this team who proves once again to be a top team with quality in every position in spite of all the changes. This is a tough match, we’ll need maximum focus. I was in the same room as Pippo Lanza with the Italian national team. As a good captain, I’ll tell my national teammates from Trento to behave on Sunday!”
Mitar Djuric (Diatec Trentino): “The Champions League win against Maaseik gave us a boost. We still have a lot of problems to sort out but we always keep our target in mind and we’ll do so again on Sunday night. I hope to see more progress in Perugia, that we’ll be in good shape physically and hopefully we’ll get another positive result because right now this is all that matters”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Calzedonia Verona
PRECEDENTI: 6 (4-2 Verona)
Luigi Randazzo (Exprivia Molfetta): “Tuesday’s win was important: we showed great character, especially in the third set, and we won a game that could have been long and difficult. Now it will be even more complicated against Verona. They have top quality players and they aim at being among the best, and maybe even to win it all. We’re up for it, we want to play a good game and show more of the good things seen against Ravenna. We’ll be home and that’s definitely an important factor”.
Andrea Giani (Coach Calzedonia Verona): “Hardly back from our trip to Latina, we set off to Molfetta. They have a good team, they’re physically strong and they play good volleyball. Besides, they’ll be home. If we want to do well, we’ll need to play high level volleyball and have the kind of attitude that helps us to overcome the tough moments”.
DHL Modena – Revivre Milano
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (Modena won both)
Andrea Sartoretti (GM DHL Modena): “We are satisfied with our game in Ljubljana, but we’re already focused on the game against Milan, which won’t be easy by any means. This season will be like that, we’ll have to get used to play top level games in quick succession. We’ll need to keep a high level of concentration, all the time, this is the only way to achieve something big this season”.
Andrea Galaverna (Revivre Milano): “We know Modena is one of the most difficult away games. This is a top level team that plays in the Champions League. We keep working full speed in the gym and we’re getting better. We’re trying to find ourselves better on court to cut down on our mistakes, take one set at a time and then win the game. There’s so much work to be done. We know it will be tough from now on, we’ll have many mid-week games, but we’ll try our best, giving maximum effort all the time”.
LPR Piacenza – Tonazzo Padova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 22 (15-7 Piacenza)
Thijs Ter Horst (LPR Piacenza): “Padova is a quality team but we have to win this one and play good volleyball. We analysed with coach Giuliani what went wrong in the game against Civitanova: some things went ok and we have to build on those, but others have gone wrong and we have to improve”.
Valerio Baldovin (coach Tonazzo Padova): “We’re looking for consistency. We’ll build on the good things done in Trento to get better. I’d describe Sunday’s game as a match between “opposite teams”, because Padova is young and with little experience, while our opponent is packed with players who have been at the top for years. Definitely a tough test for us, but we’ll need to play without fear, stay focused on our game and try to limit our mistakes”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova – Ninfa Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 38 (30-8 Civitanova)
Simone Parodi (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “We’re coming off an important Champions League win, we had a positive attitude, and the quality of play was fine, this is something we’ve been working on every day. We want to keep making progress against Latina, improve our level of play and get points on board”.
Roberto Romiti (Ninfa Latina): “We did not play at our best against Verona but with the effort we put in we might have deserved more. We played face to face with one of the top teams of this league. Now we’re facing this road game against Civitanova, another tough one in which we basically have nothing to lose. So we can go out without any pressure against one of the most important clubs of this SuperLega”.
Gi Group Monza – CMC Romagna
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (2 each)
Andrea Galliani (Gi Group Team Monza): “Hopefully we’ll bring a first joy to our home fans and we’ll play some good volleyball. They have a quality roster, but they have new players and like us they’re building their understanding on court in this beginning of season. We have worked hard this week, we worked on the flow of our game. There is a good cohesion in the group, people get along on and off the court. We’ll need a bit of time but we’re on the right track”.
Waldo Kantor (coach CMC Romagna): “This will be a very important game for us. We had a poor game in Molfetta on Tuesday, so we want the team to play with more conviction and try to play a good game without thinking too much. We struggled to face Molfetta’s aggressiveness and we stopped playing our game. We let the game slip away and this should not happen. I don’t want the boys to lose their focus because of what happens on the other side of the net and the way the opponent is playing, even if we’re going a few points behind. We have to stay focused on our own game and our fundamentals. Thinking of doing well what we can do well is key. I think Monza and ourselves are more or less of the same level, so we have our chance to win, but we’ll need to be more clinical and aggressive”.
Serie A2 UnipolSai
Round 3 preview
All the games will be live on the Lega Volley Channel (Sportube.tv). In a rather tight league so far, three teams have put their nose in front: Cantù, Sora and Potenza Picena.
The third round will start with newly promoted Civita Castellana travelling to Tricase to take on the bottom team Alessano, still without a point. Civita Castellana clinched a point in a come-back against Mondovì, which followed their breakthrough in Vibo, while Alessano will need more determination in the key moments to get on track.
Last week, Vibo won it in Tuscania as Marcello Forni got closer to the 2000 points in the Serie A. Now they want their first victory at home against the newly promoted side of Siena, who will still be without Goran Maric and Daniele Mengozzi, both qualified from round 4. Beaten first in Potenza, Siena bounced back with a win against a top side like Ortona thanks to great plays from Snippe and Majdak, currently top scorer of the league with Sora’s Hoogerdoorn.
Reassuring win in Castellana Grotte last week for Reggio, who will try to ruin Brescia’s lunch on Sunday (game scheduled at noon). Coach Cantagalli has to deal with many injuries, but in the meantime Kody and Douglas-Powell have been firing on all cylinders. Brescia will try to register their first victory as they will be led by their stars Simone Tiberti and Alberto Cisolla, who’s two blocks away from the 500 in the Serie A.
Ortona is eager to put points together to catch up with the bigs as they host the unbeaten Potenza Picena, a top team that had lost only once in pre-season against…Ortona. The poor game against Siena and the near collapse against Brescia does not worry the hosts as the club celebrates the Fipav award rewarding the quality of their youth academy.
Cantù will try to stay top as they host Castellana Grotte. Wins over Alessano and Club Italia got everybody excited in Cantù. The third triumph in as many years of Max Redaelli in the Region’s Trophy only added to the euphoria. Castellana comes in angry following the sets given away at the very end at home last week.
Sora aims at staying at the top too as they make the short trip to Rome to face Club Italia. Sora counts maximum points and their Dutch outside hitter Hoogendoorn has been impressive but they will have to be careful because the young guns of Club Italia have proved they could play volleyball as they beat Castellana at the tie-break and played a thrilling third set against Cantù.
Newly promoted Mondovì is coming off a breakthrough in Civita Castellana and now will try to get some joy at home against Tuscania. The latter will have to wait for round 4 before being able to line up libero Federico Bonami. Middle blocker Michele Parusso will celebrate his 200th appearance for Mondovì and he’s close to 200 blocks in the Serie A. This will be a key game for Tuscania, who was defeated by Vibo after the initial upset of Reggio.
Serie A2 UnipolSai round 3
Friday 6 November at 8.30pm
Aurispa Alessano – Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Palumbo-Stancati)
Saturday 7 November at 8.30pm
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Emma Villas Siena Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Gasparro-Talento)
Sunday 8 November at noon
Conad Reggio Emilia – Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Somansino-Piperata)
Sunday 8 November at 4pm
Sieco Service Ortona – Volley Potentino Potenza Picena Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Rolla-Merli)
Sunday 8 November at 6pm
Cassa Rurale Cantù – Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Pozzi-Giardini)
Club Italia Roma – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Guarneri-Canessa)
VBC Mondovì – Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Cerra-Licchelli)
