Italian’s elite championship is back. The 72th edition is about to get under way with 14 teams in the starting blocks, two more than last season. Among the favourites, there will be the holders of Modena, who also won the SuperCup 2016.
Coming off a superb treble, the Italian champions of Modena have just won a fourth consecutive trophy with the SuperCup, the fourth in the club history. A triumph that already put coach Piazza in the supporters’ hearts. Former Padova star Santiago Orduna settled in very quickly and made life easier for spikers like Luca Vettori, Earvin Ngapeth, who scored 30 in the SuperCup semi-final, or Nemanja Petric, MVP of the final. Useless to say that Sora, newly promoted, has a tough task to start with. While promotion hero Mattia Rosso stayed, there is a new coach on the bench with Bruno Bagnoli.
Led by the coach that won the league last season, Angelo Lorenzetti, Trento wants to bounce back from its fourth place in the SuperCup. The vice European Champions are coming off its first season without a trophy in eight years, they will want to prove a point before flying to Brazil for the World Club Championships from October 18 to 23. The only new face is the one of the outside hitter, Jan Stokr, who came back to substitute Djuric. Then there is the promising local boy Gabriele Nelli ready to play alongside Simone Giannelli, who’s coming off some superb performances in Rio’s Olympic Games. Vibo Valentia will try to cause the upset as it is back in the SuperLega after two years in the Serie A2. They obtained their entry in the elite through a request and the Italian Volleyball League accepted to grant them a pass after failing so closely in the A2 playoffs final against Sora. There was a revolution in the team led by coach Waldo Kantor. Captain Manuel Coscione is back while three quality Brazilians join in : middle blocker Deivid Junior Costa, and the spikers Kadu Barreto and Thiago Alves. The latter helped Brazil win silver in London’s Olympic Games in 2012.
Fourth season in the top division for Molfetta. They kept the same coach, Vincenzo Di Pinto, who will lead a group with some promising young players. As setter, they will have Thiaguinho to give some munition to Giulio Sabbi, who could not resist the call of his former club. Joao Rafael stayed and experienced Rumanian spiker Olteanu joined in. Finally, captain Del Vecchio will play his seventh season at the club. Their opponents in this first round will be Milan, coached by Luca Monti for the second year. Both Todor Skrimov and Federico Marretta are doubtful. They will play their home game in Busto Arsizio this season.
Latina will kick off its 15th season at the top at home against Verona. Latina is coming off a triumph in the Zeus tournament this weekend, with a 3-1 win over the hosts of Aversa and then a straight set victory against Sora in the final. Among the novelties, there is Vincenzo Nacci, who coached Venezuela for three years. Then there is setter Sottile and outside hitter Alessandro Fei. As for the Challenge Cup winner 2016, Verona, they brought in some top quality players such as Mitar Djuric, libero Andrea Giovi and spiker Alexandre Ferreira.
Following an extremely successful team presentation, Padova had the better of a tough opponent like Verona in a friendly and now they’re ready to go in this regular season with a first match against Ravenna. Padova’s age average will be only 22 and they will have a new setter James Shaw. And the American tradition continues with the middle blocker from California, Taylor Averill. There’s also a Canadian on the wing with Stephen Maar. Ravenna comes in with a new coach, Fabio Soli, who earned promotion with Sora last season. Ravenna is coming off some impressive outings in pre-season : a draw in Civitanova as well as a 3-2 win over Milan, the latter coming back from behind and scoring 21 aces. Ravenna registered a couple of big signings like french Julien Lyneel and setter Luca Spirito.
Monza will be looking for a breakthrough and a rare win over Civitanova to start the new season in style. The team is led by Argentine coach Angel Falasca, who will make his debut in the SuperLega after three years at Belchatow in Poland. However he has been in Italy as a player. This summer Monza signed Christian Fromm, Simon Hirsch, Donovan Dzavoronok, Marcello Forni and Jernej Terpin. Civitanova finished third of the SuperCup. Coach Blengini came back from Rio with a silver medal around his neck won with Italy. The team is hoping to have setter Micah Christenson fit just on time for the encounter, though they know they have quality substitutes in Antonio Corvetta and the French Yoann Jaumel. Davide Candellaro, Luigi Randazzo, the German Denys Kaliberda are some of the new names who joined Civitanova this summer.
Exciting times in Piacenza, which got a last minute call into the CEV Cup 2016-17 while they had qualified for the Challenge Cup. This year, coach Alberto Giuliani will count on an all Cuban pair of setter and outside hitter with Raydel Hierrezuelo and Ramos Hernandez, who are capable of making the difference at the highest level. The roster is also composed of Alletti, Leonel Marshall, Simone Parodi, young French international Trevor Clévenot, and the king of blocks Viktor Yosifov. Piacenza will take on one of the top teams of the tournament, Perugia, who now has setter Luciano De Cecco, in PIacenza from 2012 to 2014. Perugia went very close to win the SuperCup as the arrival this summer of Ivan Zaytsev brought a wave of excitement at the club. He will play outside hitter until Aleksandar Atanasijevic comes back. Other big names are Birarelli, Podrascanin, Russel and Berger.
SuperLega UnipolSai First round
Sunday 2 October at 6pm
Azimut Modena – Biosì Indexa Sora Diretta RAI Sport 1 Live on streaming su www.raisport.rai.it
Diatec Trentino – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia Live on Lega Volley Channel
Exprivia Molfetta – Revivre Milano Live on Lega Volley Channel
Top Volley Latina – Calzedonia Verona Live on Lega Volley Channel
Kioene Padova – Bunge Ravenna Live on Lega Volley Channel
Gi Group Monza – Cucine Lube Civitanova Live on Lega Volley Channel
LPR Piacenza – Sir Safety Conad Perugia Live on Lega Volley Channel
Azimut Modena – Biosì Indexa Sora
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Roberto Piazza (coach Azimut Modena): “This will be an important game, we have to get off to a good start after our victory in the SuperCup. But sport is made of present and future, not past. As I’ve said many times, I focus on my own house, Modena, and I want Modena to get better. We won’t be at our best yet, but I want to see quickness and fighting spirit against a Sora team that will give 100%, so we’ll have to do the same ».
Bruno Bagnoli (coach Biosì Indexa Sora): “We had a very positive pre-season even if we have not reached our best form yet and in spite of missing our two outside hitters, one of them having just joined the group a few days ago. This will be an extremely difficult game and I don’t know how my boys can react against such a high level of play. The pressure will be on our opponents so we’ll have to try to stay cool psychologically even if we’ll face some top class servers and some physically and technically impressive players at the net. What should not go amiss is the energy, not even against the numero one candidate to win the league ».
Diatec Trentino – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 26 (22-4 Trento)
Simone Giannelli (Diatec Trentino): “First of all I hope the arena will already be packed, because starting in a special atmosphere would really help. Then, hopefully the team will not underestimate this match. Vibo has a lot of quality, even if that is a team that was in the Serie A2 last season. The level of the league has gone up and games like this one, even at home, can turn out to be tough because Vibo has a lot of experienced players ».
Waldo Kantor (coach Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “A tough one to start with in Trento, a vert strong team. But we’re ready to have our say and show what we can do like we did in pre-season. We’ll have to play as a team and to the best of our abilities, hoping they won’t be at their best. It’s a privilege for me to be part of the Italian league again and leading a team from the south where I was happy to find all the traditions and atmosphere I had known in my previous experiences there. The city and fans have already shown great support and I am sure there will be a great synergy between team and fans. This will be a tough season, but we will fight one point after another against eveyrone, trying to impose our game ».
Exprivia Molfetta – Revivre Milano
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (All Molfetta)
Vincenzo Di Pinto (coach Exprivia Molfetta): “The difficulties of the first games always comes from the difficulties of the pre-season. We had to make a lot of changes and there are some difficulties that come with it, especially considering that many of our new players have only just arrived. My task will be to take the best out of all we’ve got and be competitive. We’re making progress but I am curious to see what we can do against a very strong Milan side, who kept some of their players. We’ll have the court advantage and I hope the fans will give us a hand, we need it more than ever to have a good start ».
Riccardo Sbertoli (Revivre Milano): “We’re ready for this first game of the season after a long period of work. We began our pre-season in the first days of August and now has finally come the time to get on court for the first points of the season. We start with a road game against a dangerous team, everybody knows how tough it is in Molfetta with the atmosphere there is there, capable of pushing their team to a higher level. But we’ll go there to try to get a result, we know we have a good potential and we want to start well this new season ».
Top Volley Latina – Calzedonia Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 25 (15-10 Verona)
Danger Quintana (Top Volley Latina): “I can’t wait to start this regular season. The team has been incredible in training, keeping a high rhythm and with a spectacular harmony in the group. I think this will be a good season for Latina. We have to give our best straight away against Verona so that we can start on a good note and have a superb season ».
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “We’ll play on Sunday with the players who have been there from the start of the pre-season. The fact Djuric and Ferreira will be missing should not be an excuse. Latina is the city where I grew up, and there will be the emotion of the league debut. This will be a tough game, we have to focus on our targets. This will be a long and important season. There’s a lot of expectations because we have built a team to go all the way. I like to play for trophies, this club and team are built to win ».
Kioene Padova – Bunge Ravenna
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 56 (30-26 Ravenna)
Valerio Baldovin (coach Kioene Padova): “We’re a work in progress, so we’ll need to limit the bad spells as much as possible and handle as well as wel can the difficult times that can happen during a game. We know it will be the first for everyone, for Ravenna too. So we’ll need to focus on our game. We’ll face a young team but who can count on an outside hitter and spikers who can cause trouble to anyone ».
Fabio Soli (coach Bunge Ravenna): “We’ve overcome all the niggling injuries that come with the pre-season and now we’re physically ready to go. We’re up against a team that should be in the fight with us behind the top six. I expect it to be a complicated encounter, a tight one that could be decided on serve and reception. I want my team to play with confidence, aware it can get a result against a feisty team like Padova. We’ll need to be ready to sacrifice to get a result ».
Gi Group Monza – Cucine Lube Civitanova
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (4 all Civitanova)
Ivan Raic (Gi Group Monza): “I am very happy to be here for another season. I’ve only been here two days but I’ve only seen positive things so far. The team has greatly been strengthened. Falsaca and the staff are extremely well-prepared. I’d say we can only improve on last season. Civitanova is a really strong team. They will feel the pressure to get a result. As for us, we just have to try to play our best volleyball, without too much expectation, and try to win ».
Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Civitanova): “Here we are for a new challenge in the SuperLega, this will be my eighth season with this shirt on. I am proud to be the captain of such a strong team that will give it a fight in every competition. We want a good start, we know travelling to Monza is tough though. They have a new but well-built roster so we’ll need maximum focus to take our first points of the season ».
LPR Piacenza – Sir Safety Conad Perugia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 16 (9-7 Piacenza)
Alberto Giuliani (coach LPR Piacenza): “The time to play has finally come. The name SuperLega has never been as suitable. There will be some top level volleyball, and we’ll have fight every Sunday. In the first round, we’ll be up against one of the top teams of the league. We’ll be home and we expect our amazing fans to give us some support to play a good game with maximum determination ».
Ivan Zaytsev (Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “A big game to start with for us. Shame it is on the road and not home, though, to be honest, with all the friendly games played away from home we’re pretty used to travel. This is a tough game, Piacenza seems to be a well-built team that can be very dangerous at home with their Cuban stars. We’re eager to start this new season with a good result, we don’t want to let those first points slip away ».
