SuperLega UnipolSai first round results
Azimut Modena-Biosì Indexa Sora 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-14); Diatec Trentino-Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-22); Exprivia Molfetta-Revivre Milano 1-3 (22-25, 24-26, 25-12, 30-32); Top Volley Latina-Calzedonia Verona 0-3 (19-25, 20-25, 22-25); Kioene Padova-Bunge Ravenna 3-0 (25-20, 31-29, 25-22); Gi Group Monza-Cucine Lube Civitanova 0-3 (14-25, 23-25, 15-25); LPR Piacenza-Sir Safety Conad Perugia 1-3 (18-25, 25-23, 16-25, 21-25)
DIATEC TRENTINO – TONNO CALLIPO CALABRIA VIBO VALENTIA 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-22)
DIATEC TRENTINO: Antonov 1, Giannelli 6, Lanza 14, Solé 5, Van De Voorde, Colaci (L), Stokr 12, Urnaut 11, Mazzone D. 7. Did not play Nelli, Burgsthaler, Mazzone T., Blasi, Chiappa. Coach. Lorenzetti.
TONNO CALLIPO CALABRIA VIBO VALENTIA: Costa 10, Coscione 1, Marra (L), Gelier 10, Michalovic 6, Barreto Silva 3, Barone 4, Alves Soares 1, Diamantini, Rejlek 6. Did not play Buzzelli, Torchia, Maccarone, Corrado. Coach. Kantor.
First game and first three-point victory of the Lorenzetti era. Trento was so keen to bounce back from the SuperCup defeat and Vibo Valentia was the victim, though they gave it a good fight. Among the hosts, Lanza shined with 63% in attack and 14 points, Stokr improved as the game wore on, while Urnaut was named MVP of the game as he got the team out of tricky situations (he scored 11). Costa did very well for Vibo but their trio of high ball spikers really struggled.
Tine Urnaut (Diatec Trentino): “It was important to start with a positive result for various reasons. Thanks to some good work at the net and in dig, we quickly took control of the game and sealed it in three sets : this is what we wanted. Vibo proved this will be a very tight championship. They did well, they forced us to play at a high level to win it ».
Waldo Kantor (Coach Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “We’re very disappointed not to have been able to limit our mistakes in the important moments of the game. With a couple of different plays, we might have been able to win the end of sets. We did not handle too well certain situations but we never gave up when we found ourselves trailing by a few points. But the too many mistakes ruined all our efforts ».
TOP VOLLEY LATINA – CALZEDONIA VERONA 0-3 (19-25, 20-25, 22-25)
TOP VOLLEY LATINA: Klinkenberg 6, Gitto 5, Sottile 3, Pistolesi, Strugar 5, Quintana Guerra 2, Rossi 6, Maruotti 12, Penchev 3, Fanuli (L). DNP Fei. Coach. Nacci.
CALZEDONIA VERONA: Zingel 7, Kovacevic 17, Paolucci, Lecat 16, Giovi (L), Baranowicz 2, Mengozzi, Stern 10, Anzani 7. DNP Holt, Frigo. Coach. Giani.
Verona came back from Latina’s PalaBianchini arena with a three-point win in Andrea Giani’s hundredth game for the club.
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “These are strange games, there was not much material to study tactically and prepare the encounter. We did a good job of limiting our mistakes in certain situations. I want to congratulate all my players, we played as a team without taking the players missing as an excuse. This is a good result. It is difficult to evaluate the teams right now. We put Latina under pressure from the start, it’s too early to make any analysis ».
Vincenzo Nacci (coach Top Volley Latina): “We struggled in the first two sets, our reception was not very good, and we have to improve in the blocking department. We got better in the third set. I am not too worried because I know we can improve ».
AZIMUT MODENA – BIOSÌ INDEXA SORA 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-14)
AZIMUT MODENA: Cook, Petric 9, Orduna 1, Massari 7, Rossini (L), Ngapeth S., Le Roux 8, Piano, Holt 15, Vettori 22. DNP Ngapeth E., Onwuelo, Zanni. Coach. Piazza.
BIOSì INDEXA SORA: Gotsev 4, Tiozzo 2, Santucci (L), Kalinin 6, Rosso 8, Mattei 1, Seganov 1, Sperandio, Miskevich 14. DNP Marrazzo, Corsetti, Lucarelli, Mauti. Coach. Bagnoli.
Winner of the SuperCup last week, Modena kicked off its league campaign with a 3-0 win over Sora. Setter Orduna did a brilliant job in the first set but Sora’s young talents did not give up easily. Some excellent reception and attack sent Modena to the first set win, helped by a serve mistake from Gotsev. Same second set with a little cushion early for the hosts (12-7 then 19-14) after some spectacular rallies. Seganov and co ignited a superb come back, though. But the hosts hold them off to lead 2-0. The third set was one-way traffic.
Roberto Piazza (coach Azimut Modena): “We won an important game, because the start of the SuperLega is always tricky. Sora played some good volleyball and they never gave up. Credit to them but we did make it hard for ourselves too. Now we’ll have a week of training ahead of us to play better as a team ».
Bruno Bagnoli (coach Biosì Indexa Sora): “We lost against a top class team. I am satisfied with the boys who proved they would never give up. Now we have to give everything we have next Sunday at home in another extremely complicated encounter ».
GI GROUP MONZA – CUCINE LUBE CIVITANOVA 0-3 (14-25, 23-25, 15-25)
GI GROUP MONZA: Fromm 10, Dzavoronok, Daldello, Galliani 3, Rizzo (L), Jovovic, Botto 4, Verhees 5, Beretta 5, Hirsch 7, Brunetti. DNP Terpin, Forni. Coach. Falasca.
CUCINE LUBE CIVITANOVA: Sokolov 16, Candellaro 7, Pesaresi, Kaliberda 8, Juantorena 17, Casadei, Stankovic 11, Grebennikov (L), Corvetta, Cebulj. DNP Kovar, Jaumel, Cester, Randazzo. Coach. Blengini.
The push from 3363 supporters (record for the club in SuperLega) was not enough to lead Monza to a breakthrough. Monza has never beaten Civitanova and tonight again the visitors came out on top behind an MVP performance from Juantorena (18 points, 1 ace). Sokolov added 17 (2 blocks) while Corvetta did an excellent job distributing the ball. As for the hosts, Christian Fromm and Thomas Beretta had good games.
Marco Rizzo (Gi Group Monza): “Shame, we really believed we could do something today. It’s true that we were up against one of the absolute best teams of this league and that we’ve only trained a couple of days all together but the group was extremely motivated for this game. We’ll build on the energy seen in the second set, knowing we’ll have a full week to train with our full squad. We have another important game in Vibo Valentia on Sunday, we’ll try to get there as ready as possible ».
Denis Kaliberda (Cucine Lube Civitanova): “It’s always nice to start the season with a victory. I think our block-dig combination and our intensity on the serve made the difference. We played some excellent volleyball, we’re satisfied, but tomorrow we’re back from scratch. We’ll play host to Piacenza next Sunday, which should be more difficult, we’ll need to be extremely focused ».
KIOENE PADOVA – BUNGE RAVENNA 3-0 (25-20, 31-29, 25-22)
KIOENE PADOVA: Bassanello, Shaw 3, Giannotti 12, Balaso (L), Maar 16, Koncilja 7, Volpato 2, Averill 6, Milan, Fedrizzi 6. DNP Zoppellari, Link, Sestan. Coach. Baldovin.
BUNGE RAVENNA: Ricci 4, Kaminski 3, Raffaelli, Lyneel 16, Grozdanov 14, Goi (L), Torres 8, Bossi 2, Spirito. DNP Calarco, Leoni, Van Garderen, Marchini. Coach. Soli.
Straight set victory for Padova over Ravenna between the two youngest teams of the SuperLega. Maar was the main man and named MVP, while the hosts had a better reception. Led 4-8 in the first, Padova fought back to tie it at 14 and then escape 19-14. Red card for Torres in the second at 14-11. At 23-19 Ravenna reacted but eventually surrendered 31-29. Once again in the third, the hosts were more clinical in the clutch time.
Valerio Baldovin (coach Kioene Padova): “Sometimes you can see we’re still looking for our game but we’re improving. It’s been a positive game. We limited our mistakes even if we struggled on Lyneel’s serve in the second set. Now we’ll face a run of very tough games but we’ve started with a good result, which was important ».
Fabio Soli (coach Bunge Ravenna): “More than disappointed with the result I am disappointed with the performance. Padova made the best of its setter’s height and we did not block much. We let them play too much. We have a lot of work on because there will be a lot of intense games like this one during the season and we’ll need to be ready for them ».
LPR PIACENZA – SIR SAFETY CONAD PERUGIA 1-3 (18-25, 25-23, 16-25, 21-25)
LPR PIACENZA: Manià (L), Parodi, Alletti 5, Papi 1, Zlatanov 11, Yosifov 5, Tencati 1, Hierrezuelo 2, Hernandez Ramos 18, Clévenot 8, Cottarelli. Coach. Giuliani.
SIR SAFETY CONAD PERUGIA: Buti 4, Tosi (L), Chernokozhev 1, Russell 14, Zaytsev 18, Della Lunga 1, Mitic, Berger 12, De Cecco 2, Bari (L), Birarelli 2, Podrascanin 11. DNP Franceschini, Atanasijevic. Coach. Kovac.
Record crowd (4002) for this first one in the PalaBanca arena as Piacenza took on last year’s league finalists. Prizes and awards before the game for the Italians who took silver in the Olympic Games and Hernandez, best ace man in 2015-16. Piacenza showed some character and fighting spirit, like in the fourth set when it came back from 8-16 to 21-24 but in the end Perugia prevailed in four sets. Hernandez had 18 for the hosts, just like Zaytsev (3 aces, 3 blocks), who was named MVP.
Loris Manià (LPR Piacenza): “In the third set we did not manage to stay close because we had to sub Yosifov. Zaytsev’s serve hurt us and in the last two sets we were not as present physically. But we never gave up, that’s a positive thing. We definitely have to make progress physically before our road game in Civitanova. And we’ll need to play with a good attitude ».
Simone Buti (Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “At times, Piacenza dominated us but it’s normal to have moments like this in the SuperLega with strong teams like this who play at scuh high pace. We have some great players in the roster but you need to play well as a team to win games. We’ll need maximum focus on our next game against Padova now ».
EXPRIVIA MOLFETTA – REVIVRE MILANO 1-3 (22-25, 24-26, 25-12, 30-32)
EXPRIVIA MOLFETTA: Polo 12, Vitelli 3, Partenio, Del Vecchio 4, De Barros Ferreira 18, Sabbi 27, De Pandis (L), Hendriks, Ropret 3, Di Martino. DNP Olteanu, Porcelli, Cormio. Coach. Di Pinto.
REVIVRE MILANO: Cortina (L), Hoag 12, Galaverna 1, Sbertoli 6, Tondo, Skrimov 14, Nielsen, De Togni 8, Galassi 9, Boninfante 1, Starovic 10. DNP Rudi, Marretta. Coach. Monti.
MVP: Giulio Sabbi
Difficult start to the season for Molfetta who was defeated home by Milan. The game was however tight all night long, it was decided at the end of sets. The domination of the hosts in the third set, Polo (100% in attack) and Sabbi’s performances (27 points, MVP) were just mere consolation. Starovic did not have his best game (21%) while the team was without the injured Olteanu and Thiaguinho.
Daniele De Pandis (Exprivia Molfetta): “At the end of this game, I can say there is still a lot of work to be done. It was tough, we were missing a couple of players in pre-season, but we were still very close in each set. With time and hard work we’ll be able to see the real value of this team ».
Danilo Cortina (Revivre Milano): “It’s important to grab a victory after two months of hard work. We had to make the most of this game because they were missing some players. Winning in this arena is always a breakthrough. We did a good job of winning this hard-fought battle ».
League table
Cucine Lube Civitanova 3, Azimut Modena 3, Calzedonia Verona 3, Kioene Padova 3, Diatec Trentino 3, Sir Safety Conad Perugia 3, Revivre Milano 3, Exprivia Molfetta 0, LPR Piacenza 0, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 0, Bunge Ravenna 0, Top Volley Latina 0, Biosì Indexa Sora 0, Gi Group Monza 0.
Fixtures
SuperLega UnipolSai Round 2
Friday 7 October at 8.30pm
Bunge Ravenna – Top Volley Latina Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Sunday 9 October at 6pm
Cucine Lube Civitanova – LPR Piacenza Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Kioene Padova Live on Lega Volley Channel
Revivre Milano – Azimut Modena Live on Lega Volley Channel
Biosì Indexa Sora – Diatec Trentino Live on Lega Volley Channel
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Gi Group Monza Live on Lega Volley Channel
Wednesday 12 October at 8.30pm
Calzedonia Verona – Exprivia Molfetta Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
