Lega supports World Diabetes Day
During the league games to be played from November 13 to November 17, the Italian Volleyball League will show its support to the World Diabetes Day, which was launched in 1991 to raise awareness on Diabetes, on its prevention and management. The World Diabetes Day is celebrated on November 14 and hundredth of events will be held in over 500 Italian cities.
SuperLega UnipolSai
Round 5 preview
Great volleyball followed by rice and speck in a post-game meal offered by the club is what’s on the menu in this fifth round at Verona, who plays host to Piacenza. Verona already counts 8 points in the table and is coming off a 3-0 thrashing of the Portuguese of Azores in its European debut in the Challenge Cup. As for Piacenza, the severe defeat against Trento further complicated a tricky situation. Giuliani’s men are on a three-game losing streak.
Modena, who came back unscathed from their trip to Monza, will be without Earvin Ngapeth for their home game against Latina, who currently stands in seventh place with 6 points. A game packed with players who used to play on the opponent’s roster.
Big match between two teams on the chase of the leader Modena between Perugia and Civitanova. It’s third against second. Both are coming off respective road wins against CMC Romagna and Padova. Birarelli is just three spikes from a thousand in the Serie A. Can Perugia go against the odds in this encounter? Civitanova has won 8 of 11 in this fixture so far.
Big points at stake between CMC Romagna and Trentino. Romagna will try to move out of the lower part of the table as the tornado Perugia prevented them from making any progress. Trento is full of confidence following their thrashing of Piacenza. Lanza, who finished top scorer and was named MVP, is just 13 spikes from one thousand.
Tied in seventh place, Molfetta entertains Padova. The hosts are coming off an away win at the tie-break against Milan. That was Molfetta’s third tie-break in four games, which underlines their fighting spirit but maybe also some difficulty of keeping control of things. Padova is stuck with three points in the table following their home loss against Civitanova, Two targets in one for middle blocker Marco Volpato, who will make his 100th appearance and could reach the 500 points.
Milan and Monza will wait for Tuesday 17 to play their encounter. Both clubs have collected 2 wins in four games so far. This will be Marco Rizzo’s come-back in Milan, while Danail Milushev will chase the 2000 points.
SuperLega UnipolSai Round 5
Sunday 15 November at noon
Calzedonia Verona – LPR Piacenza Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Cappello-Puecher)
Sunday 15 November at 5pm
DHL Modena – Ninfa Latina Diretta RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Tanasi-Vagni)
Sunday 15 November at 6pm
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Gnani-La Micela)
CMC Romagna – Diatec Trentino Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Santi-Saltalippi)
Exprivia Molfetta – Tonazzo Padova Diretta Lega Volley Channel
(Braico-Venturi)
Tuesday 17 November at 8.30pm
Revivre Milano – Gi Group Monza Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Lot-Zucca)
League table
DHL Modena 11, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova 10, Diatec Trentino 9, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 9, Calzedonia Verona 8, Exprivia Molfetta 7, Ninfa Latina 6, CMC Romagna 4, LPR Piacenza 3, Tonazzo Padova 3, Gi Group Monza 1, Revivre Milano 1
Calzedonia Verona – LPR Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 24 (18-6 Piacenza)
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “It’s a very tricky game against a good team. They’re coming off two bad games so they’ll come here determined to get a result. It’s important for us to keep making progress in our game and take some points. We’ll play at home at an unusual time so there’s an added difficulty. We’ll have the pleasure the see Coscione. A lot was said about the Challenge Cup this week and Coscione was one of the architects that led us to play in this competition”.
Manuel Coscione (LPR Piacenza): “We’ve not been playing well of late, we need to grab some points and find our identity on court. We have to focus on ourselves more than on the opponent. Verona plays excellent volleyball, they’re already performing at a very high level. And at home they are very tough to beat. I played there myself, I know how difficult it will be”.
DHL Modena – Ninfa Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 29 (19-10 Modena)
Andrea Sartoretti (GM DHL Modena): “Latina is a big club composed of great players. They proved they could get points against anyone. We’re ready and confident, and I’m sure our fans will give us a hand. Modena is Modena, unique as well thanks to our supporters”.
Daniele Tailli (Ninfa Latina): “This will be an important test for us. We’re coming off a good game in Civitanova, now we have to repeat this kind of performance. Hopefully, we’ll take something out of it and if we were to have a chance to win, let’s not waist any opportunity like we did in the last game. We’ve been training well, I’m sur we’ll rip the reward of this hard-work. We’ll always give it our best shot”.
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 11 (8-3 Civitanova)
Carmine Fontana (Ass.coach Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “We’re coming off the big match against Civitanova. After a poor start to the season, due to the fact we had not had much time to work all together, we showed some good volleyball in recent weeks. We’re trying to build our identity, the one of a team that wants to play with intensity and energy, eager to play great dig. And we’ll need all this in the tough test against Civitanova, because this is a top quality team. I think about Juantorena, Stankovic or Podrascanin, but at the end of the day the whole roster is first class. We’ll be under pressure, we’ll have to overcome some difficult moments and respond, not only with intensity but with quality too. But the boys love to play those games, this is why we’re all here”.
Enrico Cester (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “This will be a great challenge for us in Perugia, this is one of our direct rivals at the top of the table. We played five so far in the league and Europe, and won five, we want to keep winning in this first big match-up. It will be tough because Perugia is very strong and we’ll be on the road. But we have the potential to try to come back with a win”.
CMC Romagna – Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 8 (All Trento)
Giuseppe Patriarca (Ass.coach CMC Romagna): “After Perugia here is another very difficult game at home. We want to continue to play like we have done so far, we want to prove that our level of play is the one seen in Monza and in part in Perugia, and that to beat us teams will have to come out and play real good. Trento is a great team, we’ll need to play at a high level to get a result. We’ll need to be clinical and limit our mistakes. If we do that, they’ll have to play at their best to beat us”.
Simone Giannelli (Diatec Trentino): “In Forlì there’s a team that plays excellent volleyball, like all the team of this league. If you don’t play at your best, you run the risk of losing points against anyone. So we need to be extremely careful and play with competitive spirit if we want to get a result. We’re right in the middle of an intense period packed with games but we can’t be looking for excuses. We have to be worthy of our name”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Tonazzo Padova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 6 (4-2 Molfetta)
Daniele de Pandis (Exprivia Molfetta): “We’ve been playing a lot in recent times, we don’t have much time to rest. Besides, three of our four games went to the tie-break. The coach gave me some important responsibilities, I’m trying to put in practice all the advice I received, using my experience too. When we lower our guards, we fall behind in the scoreboard badly, but the fact that we’re united help us to turn things around like we did in Milan. We’re ready for this battle against Padova, playing in the PalaPoli arena always gives us an extra gear”.
Valerio Baldovin (Coach Tonazzo Padova): “The road game in Molfetta is always a complicated one, they serve very well at home. We’ll need to be good in the rebuilding process. Our team is getting better, we could see that against Piacenza and Civitanova. We’ll play without fear and try to make further progress”.
Revivre Milano – Gi Group Monza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (2 each)
Fabio Lini (Sport director Revivre Miano): “We’re up against a team that already has a clear identity which was built through the years. Unlike us, they have a consolidated organization. We have basically changed all our roster this season and we’re still looking to put it all together. We played our first game with the full squad on Wednesday, though Skrimov was still missing, and we got our first point against Molfetta, a team that had its full roster since the beginning of the season. Like all derby, predictions are impossible”.
Oreste Vacondio (coach Gi Group Monza): “The derby is always a special game, no matter where the teams stand in the table and what are their targets. Milan is coming off an excellent performance against Molfetta, they will be full of confidence. We had a good game ourselves against Modena. We had 12 blocks while Modena had only 5. These are good signs for the future, we have to build on this. We know we don’t have much time to work, we’ll need to make the most of every chance we have, always composed, without pressure. Who will win it? The team that makes the fewest mistakes”.
Serie A2 UnipolSai
Round 4 preview
Round 4 starts on Friday night with the leaders Sora, still perfect, and Cantù, who stands just one point behind. Sora won in four sets in Rome against Club Italia, while Cantù had a tougher game, pegged back twice by Castellana Grotte before winning it at the tie-break. These are the only two unbeaten clubs left.
Tight encounter expected between Mondovì and Reggio Emilia. Both clubs stand in mid-table after marathons played at home against Tuscania and Brescia, which ended in a tie-break and a bitter point as they could not hold off the come-back of their opponents.
Beaten in Cantù in the last round, Castellana will try to get its first victory at noon against Ortona. The task is not easy at all against a team full of confidence following their victory at home against Potenza Picena. The hosts will count on Tartaglione, who scored 26 in the last game, Tamburo, just ten points away from 3500, and Giosa, who needs 6 points to reach the 1500 in the Serie A2.
Big game between Potenza Picena and Vibo Valentia, tied in third place with six points. The Serie A2 champions face the winners of the Italian Cup. The two teams had epic battles last season. Potenza had to come back to earth last weekend as they were dominated by Ortona. Federico Ferrini will be available for the first time. Vibo had a poor league debut, but led by Peter Michalovic, they won two consecutive games. The last four matches between the two clubs, in regular season and playoffs, went to Potenza. The ones to watch will be Potenza’s outside hitter Federico Moretti against Vibo’s best blocker of all time, Marcello Forni. The latter is just one point away from the 2000.
Moment of truth for Civita Castellana and Club Italia Roma. And Club Italia Roma. The hosts took four points in two games before surrendering in Tricase. Now they want to improve their league position with this derby against the young guns of coach Totire. Club Italia has not won since the opening game of the season and they’re eager to take points as much as they want to improve their game.
Tuscania and Alessano are two other clubs aiming to go up the ladder. Both are coming off victories, respectively away against Mondovì after a spectacular come-back from 2-0 down, and against Civita Castellana, which was Alessano’s first win of the season.
Brescia and Siena will play their game on Wednesday 25. The hosts are excited about the recent win at the tie-break in Reggio Emilia, while Siena will play this game with two new players, who could have been useful in the match in Vibo Valentia, lost 3-1. The new additions are Daniele Mengozzi and Goran Maric.
Serie A2 UnipolSai Round 4
Friday 13 November at 8.30pm
Globo Banca Pop. Frusinate Sora – Cassa Rurale Cantù Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Feriozzi-Brancati)
Saturday 14 November at 8.30pm
VBC Mondovì – Conad Reggio Emilia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Canessa-Fretta)
Sunday 15 November at noon
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte – Sieco Service Ortona Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Stancati-De Simeis)
Sunday 15 November at 6pm
Volley Potentino Potenza Picena – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Saltalippi L.-Luciani)
Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana – Club Italia Roma Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Merli-Bellini)
Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania – Aurispa Alessano Live on Lega Volley Channel
(De Sensi-Pecoraro)
Wednesday 25 November at 8.30pm
Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia – Emma Villas Siena Live on Lega Volley Channel
