Olympic Game qualifying tournament and cup quarter-finals out of the way, it’s time to get back in the league with round 13. Modena versus Verona is the highlight game of the weekend.
Fifth in the table following its severe home loss against Verona, but then beaten in the cup, Perugia entertains Milan, who’s coming off a friendly tie-break win over the Dragons Lugano. Milan is currently bottom of the table. They had a tough first half of season but they are on the up having taken four of its five points in the last two rounds. Milan has not beaten Perugia yet in three attempts. Setter Dante Boninfante will celebrate his 400th appearance, while Kamil Baranek is one block away from a thousand in the Serie A.
Third from bottom after its tie-break defeat in Latina, Padova plays host to Trentino, whose 3-2 home loss against Molfetta in the quarter-final return leg did not stop them from going through to the Italian Cup Final Four. Trento is coming off a 3-1 win against Monza in the league and they are currently third.
Modena versus Verona is the big game of the weekend. Different spirit coming into this game, Modena made it into the Cup final four, while the dream vanished in Perugia for Verona. The league leaders have been extremely hard to manoeuvre, and they’re coming off a comfortable win in Molfetta. But Verona has done pretty well too in this first half of regular season. Giani’s men stand in fourth place as they registered a tie-break victory in the last league game before surrendering to that same opponent in the cup. Modena’s middle blocker Matteo Piano will reach 1000 points if he scores two, while the Verona spiker Starovic is just two spikes from 1500.
Positive period for Piacenza who’s been increasing its number of partners. Besides, the team interrupted its losing streak before the break by beating Milan at the tie-break in the last round. Coach Giuliani will face its recent past against his former club Civitanova. The latter has just qualified for the cup semi-finals and is currently second in the league, just two points behind Modena. The team has welcomed US spiker Raid Priddy in training in the last few days, he was Olympic Champion in 2008. Emanuel Kohut will make his 200th appearance, while Zlatanov is one block away from 800.
Romagna takes on Molfetta. The visitors made the breakthrough in Trento in the Italian Cup but still went out because of the first leg 3-0 defeat. In the first meeting between the two teams, Molfetta won it by the maximum margin. Both clubs lost their last league game 3-0 against the top two teams in the country: Modena and Civitanova. Promising star Polo is close to the 100 blocks in the league.
The last game will be on Rai Sport on Tuesday 19. It will be Monza versus Latina. The hosts surrendered to Trento in their last game before the break and have not won any points in three games. Besides, it crashed out of the cup quarter-finals yesterday, beaten by Modena. As for Latina, the second half of regular season began with a home win at the tie-break against Padova, which sent them up to seventh. In the Cup, they failed to take even one set against Civitanova.
SuperLega UnipolSai Round 13
Sunday 17 January at 5pm
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Revivre Milano Live on RAI Sport 2
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Sunday 17 January at 6pm
Tonazzo Padova – Diatec Trentino Live on Lega Volley Channel
DHL Modena – Calzedonia Verona Live on Lega Volley Channel
LPR Piacenza – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova Live on Lega Volley Channel
CMC Romagna – Exprivia Molfetta Live on Lega Volley Channel
Tuesday 19 January at 8.30pm
Gi Group Monza – Ninfa Latina Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
League table
DHL Modena 32, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova 30, Diatec Trentino 27, Calzedonia Verona 26, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 25, Exprivia Molfetta 18, Ninfa Latina 15, Gi Group Monza 12, CMC Romagna 10, Tonazzo Padova 10, LPR Piacenza 6, Revivre Milano 5
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Revivre Milano
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (Perugia won them all)
Boban Kovac (Coach Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “Every game is a different story. We have to remain focused, forget about the lovely cup evening. Or maybe remember how the game must be played, without thinking about the result. We have a responsibility towards the people who come to the gym, we made them fall in love with volleyball. We have to face this game with the right attitude and do our best to win it”.
Luca Monti (Coach Revivre Milano): “We took advantage of the break to train and it went well. The only negative note is Burgsthaler’s injury. That slowed us down in our work. I still expect the boys to cut down on their mistakes, which have been a burden for us in the first half of season: blocking, dig and counter are our weaknesses. We have to improve on those aspects, even if it won’t be easy against Perugia, they have one of the most talented setters in Italy. In this second phase, we have to win the games against opponents of our level and get away from the bottom of the table”.
Tonazzo Padova – Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 23 (19-4 Trento)
Valerio Baldovin (Coach Tonazzo Padova): “A new season begins for us from Sunday. We’ll need to put in practice all the work done during the first half of season. This will be an intense period of games for everyone and the first one against Trento looks like mission impossible for us. They’re coming off a hard-fought cup match against Molfetta so they’ll be ready for this one. Besides, their good servers, they are also excellent in dig and at the net. We’ll try to play our best volleyball and focus on our main strengths to make it hard for them”.
Simone Giannelli (Diatec Trentino): “Padova had really made it tough for us in the first meeting and this will most probably be the same again in the return game. This is a quality team, coming from a volleyball city. They have a well-defined project and you have to give them credit for what they achieved in the last two seasons in the SuperLega. We’ll have to be very good to get the victory in their Kioene Arena”.
DHL Modena – Calzedonia Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 23 (19-4 Modena)
Andrea Sartoretti (GM): “In comes the second game of the new year, it is useless to talk about the many games in quick succession anymore. This is the fixture list and these are the games to be played, and each one must be played with maximum focus. We will host Verona, a great team who’s proved to belong to the top clubs of this league. But Modena is ready, the players are up for it, the important moment of the seasons are coming, it’s now the time to grind it out. Our hunts for the finals continues”.
Nicola Pesaresi (Calzedonia Verona): “We’re extremely disappointed to be out of the Italian Cup, but we have to focus on the future. On Sunday, we face a difficult game in Modena against one of the top teams in the league. We will need to be extremely aggressive and play our best volleyball to try to make every rally tough for them. We must adopt a better attitude, we’ll always going to have difficult moments but must always try to fight back one rally after another”.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 40 (22-18 Civitanova)
Davidson Lampariello (LPR Piacenza): “We have worked extremely hard in recent weeks, both on our game and on the physical side. We have managed to sort out a few things that had not gone well in the first part of season. The break helped us understand what were our problems. We have definitely improved certain aspects but we still have to work on other things. We can’t wait to get back on court, and we have a big one ahead on Sunday against Civitanova. This is a very strong team, a tough game ahead of us, it’s always difficult when you play one of the candidates to win the league. I have played many years there, it will be a special game, I have so many memories but I want to show what I am capable of”.
Marko Podrascanin (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “We’re facing the coming games with a positive mind after the win over Latina, which qualified us to the Italian Cup final four. Next is Piacenza, definitely a tough game, we shouldn’t look at the league table, it tends to deceive you on the real value of the opponent. We’re ready to face some intense months. The most difficult and important moment of the season starts now, so we need to keep improving and always increase our level of play”.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (4-1 Molfetta)
Waldo Kantor (Coach CMC Romagna): “A complicated one to resume action after the break. Molfetta has been doing well of late. We’ll have to avoid the periods in which we lose ourselves at times. We must stay focused and stay in the game even when we’re not playing our best. We have to focus on ourselves, on playing our best volleyball, without looking too much on the other side of the net. Molfetta is a quality team, they have their main players in the setter and outside hitter from Cuba, they’re not only top players but they also have charisma and leadership. And they proved it yesterday by winning in Trento, they never give up and they are very aggressive. We have to make up for the poor display of the first meeting. But this time we’re home, I am confident”.
Davide Candellaro (Exprivia Molfetta): “This will be a difficult game because Romagna has been able to rest more than us given that they did not play in the Italian Cup. We’ll have to be careful not to start like against Trento, tense and disorganised. We can’t play like last month, when two days after the game against Civitanova, we couldn’t be effective as we’d have liked against Latina. The comfortable 3-0 win of the first meeting should not influence us. This second part must be like a new season for us. We cannot underestimate anyone, and certainly not a quality team like Romagna”.
Gi Group Monza – Ninfa Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (2-1 Latina)
Oreste Vacondio (coach Gi Group Monza): “We have made some further progress after this double header against Modena. And we are in good shape, physically and mentally. I see a good cohesion, they play as a team, it’s really gratifying. We lacked a little consistency against Modena in order to maintain a high level of play during the whole game, the long break has something to do with it. We’ll need to serve and block with intensity throughout against Latina. We know that if we play at the level of the recent league games we have everything it takes to take three points”.
Candido Grande (Sport director Ninfa Latina): “This will be a difficult game, against a team that has been improving and has been doing great things in the league. Hopefully, we’ll have everybody back to fitness for this game. This is an important game for us, hopefully we’ll play our best volleyball and overcome this obstacle”.
After this round 16, it will be time for the Del Monte® Italian Cup quarter-finals of the A2 on January 20. Meanwhile, in the last round, Vibo Valentia made its return on top as Sora was upset by Alessano.
A classic tomorrow in the PalaPrincipi arena with Potenza Picena taking on Ortona. The hosts are tied in third place with Tuscania and Civita Castellana thanks to its 3-1 home win over Brescia last Sunday. Federico Moretti will most probably be out (hand injury). Without their setter Andrea Lanci and outside hitter Matteo Paoletti, who carried out knee surgery with success, Ortona will fight hard after its recent loss against Siena.
Derby time for Sora and Club Italia. The hosts will try to cut down on the two point deficit on the leaders, Vibo, after crashing out in four sets in Tricase in the last round. As for Totire’s young guns, they surrendered to Cantù at home and are tied with a group of teams at 16 points.
Brescia, bottom of the league, and Reggio Emilia will fight it out for important points for their respective future. Brescia, whose outside hitter Fabio Bisi is struggling with physical problems, lost its last game in Potenza Picena, while Reggio won 3-1 home over Castellana Grotte, its fourth win in the last five games. They now stand in 9th place, four points from the playoff zone.
Last from bottom with three other teams tied at 16 points, Castellana Grotte will host Cantù following the debacle in Reggio. As for the visitors, the recent win in the capital give them a boost.
Tied in third place, Tuscania is looking to bounce back from its defeat against the leaders in Vibo when they take on Mondovì this weekend. In the last round, Mondovì interrupted a long losing streak with a sweep over Civita Castellana, but they’re still in the group standing last from bottom.
Big match between the leaders Vibo Valentia and Siena, who had a poor start to the season but fought back brilliantly of late. Vibo is coming off a home win over Tuscania, while the newly promoted side took three points as well in Ortona, which got them to sixth place, tied with Cantù. However, a real breakthrough is needed in Calabria to keep going up the ranks.
Paulo Da Silva has not played since December 20 and is still doubtful for this weekend as Civita Castellana takes on Alessano, a club on the up who just signed Brazilian setter Andriano Lamb. The Apulia team stands towards the bottom of the table as they only manage to show their best volleyball on home ground, just like they did last Sunday in the breakthrough against Sora. Civita Castellana failed to come back from Mondovì with a win, as Da Silva’s absence made itself felt.
Serie A2 UnipolSai Round 16
Saturday 16 January at 8.30pm
Potenza Picena – Sieco Service Ortona Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Zingaro-Canessa)
Globo Banca Pop. Frusinate Sora – Club Italia Roma Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Stancati-Nicolazzo)
Sunday 17 January at 12am
Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia – Conad Reggio Emilia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Morgillo-Giardini)
Sunday 17 January at 4pm
Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte – Cassa Rurale Cantù Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Pristerà-De Sensi)
Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania – BAM Mondovì Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Autuori-Talento)
Sunday 17 January at 6pm
Emma Villas Siena – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Feriozzi-Bellini)
Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana – Aurispa Alessano Live on Lega Volley Channel
(Mattei-Traversa N.)
League table
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 35, Globo Banca Pop. Frusinate Sora 33, Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania 27, Potenza Picena 27, Globo Scarabeo Civita Castellana 27, Emma Villas Siena 25, Cassa Rurale Cantù 25, Sieco Service Ortona 22, Conad Reggio Emilia 18, Aurispa Alessano 16, Club Italia Roma 16, BAM Mondovì 16, Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte 16, Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia 12
