Appointment on Sunday evening at 6pm at PalaMazzola against Lube Cucine Civitanova who in the last round of the championship earned fourth place in the standings by beating Modena.
The objective for this match will be to leave the field with a concrete and convincing performance, to redeem the last round which saw the rossoblù defeated in a very important clash against Cisterna.
But a head-on performance won’t be enough: the Ionian team need to gain precious safety points to avoid any danger in the five remaining games that separate them from the final objective. Therefore we hope for a close fight with any opponent, starting with Lube.
In the last match against Modena, won 3-0 by the Cucineri, the Marche team deployed the Argentinian veteran De Cecco diagonally with Lagumdzija, a heavy arm even from nine meters who earned the title of top scorer with 14 points. In the center Anzani and the Frenchman Chinenyeze with Diamantini and Larizza always ready to enter the field. In place 4, the very young but unstoppable Nikolov, a strong athlete in perfect shape, MVP of the last match, with Bottolo, and on the bench the Cuban Yant, and Zaytsev currently out due to an injury, with the libero Balaso, one of the best in the championship.
In the first leg there was a great show at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova with the rossoblù who came close to victory, leading 2-1, but lost in the tie break. Excellent performances from Gargiulo with 16 points, Russell 21 and Gutierrez 22 points, with a brilliant De Haro whose schemes put even Zaytsev and the opponent’s block out of play and then returned forcefully with Bottolo and Nikolov, as well as the always efficient Lagumdzjia. Furthermore, the jump-float service of the rossoblù power plants put the Lube reception system in serious difficulty.
On that occasion, Gioiella certainly emerged from the clash with her head held high.
The opposite Kyle Russell remembers it well:
“Lube is a high quality team with excellent players so it will be a difficult match. They have strong players among the starters and also among the reserves. We will have to know how to control their pressure on the serve and push ourselves in this fundamental serve to keep them out of the system and make the game easier for us to compete.
