Serie A1
The league resume
The league resume this weekend following the Cup final four and Trentino’s triumph against Macerata. Big game on Saturday between Modena and Vibo Valentia, while on Sunday Macerata goes south to take on Castellana Grotte, recent winner over Cuneo in the last round, and Trento will face Perugia again just ten days after the cup quarter-final in which the newly promoted side had managed to take a set.
Round 13
Saturday January 5 at 5.30pm
Casa Modena – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia Live on RAI Sport 1
(Saltalippi-Santi)
Sunday January 6 at 5.30pm
Andreoli Latina – Marmi Lanza Verona Live on RAI Sport 1
(Caltabiano-Balboni)
Sunday January 6 at 6pm
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
(Sobrero-Zucca)
Itas Diatec Trentino – Sir Safety Perugia
(Gnani-Pozzato)
CMC Ravenna – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
(Vagni-Longo)
Altotevere San Giustino – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on Sportube.tv
(Pasquali-Sampaolo)
League table
Itas Diatec Trentino 32, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 28, Copra Elior Piacenza 25, Casa Modena 21, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 20, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 20, Sir Safety Perugia 19, Andreoli Latina 17, BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte 11, Altotevere San Giustino 11, Marmi Lanza Verona 8, CMC Ravenna 4
Casa Modena – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 15 (11-4 Modena)
Guillaume Quesque (Casa Modena): “In the first leg, Vibo dominated and they’ve done very well in the first half of season. They all play and they play good volleyball. This is clearly an organised team that is united. They have a pair of outside hitter and setter that combines extremely well. This will be a very tough game, we know that. But we’re in good shape too. We have won many games in November and December, we obviously want to keep going like that even if we know we’ll have a difficult January. The Cup Final Four must give us some motivation: at the beginning of the year nobody expected it, it was like a “bonus” which must make us understand that if we give our best in the gym every day and try to improve all the time then we can achieve things that some might not think possible. Against Vibo we’ll have to be united, we have to play as a team at all time and think one set at a time…”.
Vincenzo Mastrangelo (Ass.coach Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “This will surely be a totally different game than the one played earlier in the season. Modena has not changed that much but it’s not the same team any more. Our main problem will be the heated atmosphere there will be, and they’ll have that extra enthusiasm as they ended the first half of season on a great run after a poor start. We have to respect Modena like every opponent but we’ll try to play well like we’ve done thus far. This will be a very tough game, we’ll play one point at a time, one set at a time, and we’ll just see what happens”.
Andreoli Latina – Marmi Lanza Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 17 (11-6 Verona)
Michel Guemart (Andreoli Latina): “An important game at home after the break. We have to win at all cost to stop this negative run in the league. In this beginning of year, we’ve been training well in order to be ready for Sunday’s game”.
Bruno Bagnoli (coach Marmi Lanza Verona): “I expect a tough game because away from home against a team eager to bounce back. But we’re confident, we’ve done well in recent games and improved in training. We know that if we play well we can get some points. Latina has a complete roster well guided by an experienced setter with fighting spirit. It will be down to us to put in practice all the improvement seen recently, to step up a gear and do so with consistency. A new year wish would be to be able to train all together for just a few weeks, with only Zingel out, this way we could logically get better results”.
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 6 (5-1 Macerata)
Cristian Casoli (BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte): “Macerata is Macerata. They have great stars who know exactly what they have to do. We’ll do our best and can already guarantee we will do everything that is in our ability to give a hard time to the Italian champions. It will inevitably be very tough for us but we’ll have a go, like we did in Cuneo”.
Dick Kooy (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “It’s important for us to start the season with a victory, our aim remains the top spot and to achieve that we’ll have to lose as few points as possible on the way. It will definitely be difficult in Castellana, they are coming off a great win, and they have brilliant supporters. We’ll therefore need the best Macerata, determined and focused during the whole game, and with sharp serving right from the start”.
Itas Diatec Trentino – Sir Safety Perugia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (Trento won both)
Massimo Colaci (Itas Diatec Trentino): “We had a little more rest than usual after the cup victory, but we were already ready to work on Thursday. The fans should not worry, we have no intention to lower our guards. In recent history, we have always been able to do well after a big triumph without falling asleep. We’ll try to do that again this Sunday against Perugia, a solid team that had made it hard for us on Boxing day”.
Slobodan Kovac (coach Sir Safety Perugia): “Trento has just won the Italian Cup, they’ll want to do well in their first home game after the event. We don’t exactly know who will be on court for them, but they are all top class players anyway. As for us, we’ll just play our game, and try to overcome our own limits. It might not even be enough to win, given the amazing quality there will be on the other side of the net, but we won’t give up on any play. Still, it’s evident that we’ll need a breakthrough to get something out of this game”.
CMC Ravenna – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (Cuneo won them all)
Mauro Fresa (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’ve just played a friendly game, we missed some players but it helped us prepare what will be a difficult game against the third team in the league. Cuneo has been struggling but you can’t argue with the quality of its roster: we’ll need to make it hard for their reception because when the ball is too near the net Grbic’s class and the power of their strikers make the difference”.
Dore Della Lunga (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “Hopefully we’ll be able to end this negative run in Ravenna. We have the potential to prevail, hopefully we’ll be composed and humble to make it happen, we should not take anything for granted, though”.
Altotevere San Giustino – Copra Elior Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Piacenza)
Marco Fenoglio (coach Altotevere San Giustino): “We have trained very well in the last few days, we know we’ll be up against one of the top teams of this league. They have an excellent roster, but we’d like to give our fans a prestigious victory. My boys are in great shape, we’re playing decent volleyball, but we’re missing that big win against a top team, a win that would prove we have got to a different level and that we could give a game to anyone. We’ll have to play very well, especially on the serve, hit it hard without making mistakes, in order to be more comfortable in the dig-block area and build up for an important result”.
Gabriele Maruotti (Copra Elior Piacenza): “Sunday’s game will be a tough one: San Giustino is a tough place to go to, with the support of their fans they’ll play without fear. We’ll have to prove to ourselves that we have learned from our mistakes made in the Italian Cup against Modena in order to come confident for next week’s game against Macerata. We’re going through a difficult period: We’ll have four games in 3 weeks, including the Challenge Cup, in which we’ll have to show how strong we are”.
Serie A2
Round 13 (first return games)
Vero Volley Monza – Elettrosud Brolo. Fifth against tenth. Ten points separate the two teams. Brolo is rescinding the contract of Overbeeke, who will not play, and will be without the injured Ricci. Only two wins for them so far.
Tonazzo Padova – Sieco Service Ortona. In the last five rounds, Ortona was rested once and lost the other four. Padova is now just three points behind despite a lot of ups and downs in the first half of season (5 wins and 7 losses).
Caffè Aiello Corigliano – Pallavolo Loreto. The hosts are coming off a tie-break win over Brolo and count a 9-point advantage on Loreto. The latter turned things around in the past two games with wins over Potenza and Brolo.
Exprivia Molfetta – Coserplast Matera. Molfetta is coming off an excellent game against Città di Castello in the cup semi-final, eventually lost at the tie-break. Matera is bottom with seven points but they will have a new coach in Vincenzo Nacci, who takes over Rosario Braia, who had already substituted Draganov earlier this season.
Conad Reggio Emilia – Sidigas Atripalda. Cantagalli’s boys were beaten 3-1 in the first leg, they’ll have the tough task to contain a team working now on full cylinders following their cup triumph, the first in history.
B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora. Second against last from bottom. The hosts are desperate to get away from the danger zone, while Sora will want to forget about the cup semi-final exit against Atripalda and try to catch-up the leaders, Città di Castello.
Round 13 (first return games)
Sunday January 6 at 6pm
Vero Volley Monza – Elettrosud Brolo
(Lot-Rolla)
Tonazzo Padova – Sieco Service Ortona
(Piluso-Bartoloni)
Caffè Aiello Corigliano – Pallavolo Loreto
(Talento-Gentile)
Exprivia Molfetta – Coserplast Matera
(Gasparro-Morgillo)
Conad Reggio Emilia – Sidigas Atripalda
(Guarneri-Bellini)
B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora Differed on RAI Sport 1, Tuesday January 8 at 8pmn
(Allegrini-Puletti)
Rested: Gherardi SVI Città di Castello
League table
Gherardi SVI Città di Castello 34, Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora 27, Sidigas Atripalda 26, Exprivia Molfetta 24, Vero Volley Monza 20, Sieco Service Ortona 20, Caffè Aiello Corigliano 17, Tonazzo Padova 17, Conad Reggio Emilia 16, Elettrosud Brolo 10, Pallavolo Loreto 8, B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena 8, Coserplast Matera 7
