First change of shirt in volleyball history: Davide Marra with Buffon’s shirt
Davide Marra met his boyhood idol, Juventus’ Gigi Buffon, on Wednesday, and decided to wear the shirt he gave him for Piacenza’s home game against the Italian Champions, Macerata.
Serie A1
Round 14
Big games already on Saturday with Modena taking on Trentino as both clubs are in great shape. Modena has put together a run of six consecutive wins while Trento had only been beaten in the opening game of the season. One more exciting match-up to look forward to this Saturday will be Piacenza against Macerata, third versus second. The rest of the games will be played on Sunday.
Serie A1 Round 14
Saturday January 12 at 5.30pm
Casa Modena – Itas Diatec Trentino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Cipolla-Pasquali)
Saturday January 12 at 8pm
Copra Elior Piacenza – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata Live on Sportube.tv
(Caltabiano-Tanasi)
Sunday January 13 at 4.30pm
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Pol-Rapisarda)
Sunday January 13 at 6pm
Andreoli Latina – Altotevere San Giustino
(Boris-Cesare)
Marmi Lanza Verona – CMC Ravenna
(Padoan-Gnani)
Sir Safety Perugia – BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte
(Prandi-Satanassi)
League table
Itas Diatec Trentino 34, Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 31, Copra Elior Piacenza 28, Casa Modena 24, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 23, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 20, Andreoli Latina 20, Sir Safety Perugia 20, BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte 11, Altotevere San Giustino 11, Marmi Lanza Verona 8, CMC Ravenna 4
Casa Modena – Itas Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 41 (26-15 Trento)
Sam Deroo (Casa Modena): “We’re expecting a tough game, Trento is a great team, it’s always difficult to play against them. It’s hard for us as well as for any other teams in Italy, in Europe and the world. We must focus on our game, stay concentrated and try to convert the opportunity that might come our way. For us, next Saturday’s game against Castellana Grotte will be even more important. But it’s clear that playing against the world champions means having a go at the best of all and that can help us get better. Let’s play one set at a time without ever giving up, even when things will go wrong, we’ll have to try to hang in there with our heads high, focusing on developing our game”.
Andrea Bari (Itas Diatec Trentino): “The Modena game is the first of two very tricky encounters on the road for us as we’ll fly out to Moscow on Sunday morning to play our Champions League tie scheduled for Tuesday. But all our focus is on Modena right now, we’ll try to get a big result against a team that cannot be defined a surprise any more, they’re clearly one of the strong teams of our league. They are united, they have a great coaching staff, they do a good job of working with the young players, they really made significant progress since they began their new program last summer. This will be a tough obstacle for us, but we’ll have Stokr and Juantorena back, which should take us to a higher level compare to our previous game won 3-2 in Perugia”.
Copra Elior Piacenza – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 28 (13 successi Piacenza, 15 successi Macerata)
Luca Monti (coach Copra Elior Piacenza): “The training week went well: there was an excellent intensity and quality. We are keen to challenge a team that is just three points ahead of us. We’ll just try to play a good game”.
Alberto Giuliani (coach Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Crucial game for our league position, even if not yet decisive. If we are to win, we could still aim for top spot. We’re not yet at our best but the boys are on the right track, and I expect them to show further progress in this game, especially with Kooy and Starovic in the team. In Piacenza, like in the many games we’ll play in January, we’ll need to find the right mix of composure and aggressiveness. This will definitely be a different game than the one played earlier this season: Piacenza did not have Simon, and De Cecco had an abdominal problem. This time, it’s our turn to be missing some players”.
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 18 (15-3 Cuneo)
Emiliano Cortellazzi (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “This should be a much different game than the one played in the cup. However, we had played with aggressiveness from the word ‘go’ and never let them a chance to get back in it. This one will be very difficult for both teams: we are keen to bounce back from the Modena defeat, while Cuneo will want to take revenge on the cup defeat which prevented them from going to the semis. Cuneo has three great spikers on high balls, it will be crucial for us to make it hard for them from the first serve, we’ll also need quality block-dig in order not to let them do whatever they want”.
Emanuel Kohut (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We’re going to Vibo Valentia to win, to prove we’re a strong team. Vibo is a very competitive team, especially at home, this will be a tough one. We have an intense week ahead of us, with this long trip south and then going to Slovenia before going back to Cuneo for the home game of the 20th against Latina. The Champions League 12 encounters will be tough because Ljubljana has a really good team”.
Andreoli Latina – Altotevere San Giustino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Latina)
Massimiliano Prandi (Andreoli Latina): “After last Sunday’s great result, we’ll be playing a tough team. We’re working hard to be ready for this intense period coming up. San Giustino is a young team with fighting spirit, we’ll have to play at our best, and keep improving during this tricky period”.
Vincenzo Porro (assistant coach Altotevere San Giustino): “Latina is a team put together with great ambition, they have excellent players. Their current position does not say it all about their real potential, they have good back-ups for every position. Prandi tends to use the turnover during games, which can be an advantage for them to stop us from getting comfortable. We’ve been training well this week, we’re confident, we’ll try to redeem ourselves from last Sunday’s poor performance against Piacenza. We just need that prestigious result to make the qualitative leap, we’ll try to get it against Latina”.
Marmi Lanza Verona – CMC Ravenna
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 3 (Verona 3-0)
Bruno Bagnoli (coach Marmi Lanza Verona): “We finally managed to get Rak, De Marchi and Meoni back during the week and we managed to train all together to be ready for the Ravenna game, all motivated and up for it. There will be a big crowd ready to help us get a victory we hope to celebrate all together on court on Sunday. On the one hand, we know it won’t be easy but on the other hand we have confidence in our ability and we’re convinced we can keep getting better following the improvements seen in recent games”.
Mauro Fresa (coach CMC Ravenna): “If you look at the table, this game is a clash between two teams of a similar potential. Both teams are dealing with injuries, so the physical sharpness could be key. Ravenna will try to come on top even if Moro is not hundred percent and Owens could not jump this week because of an ankle pain felt against Cuneo”.
Sir Safety Perugia – BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (3-1 Castellana Grotte)
Carmine Fontana (assistant coach Sir Safety Perugia): “We know each other well, having fought it out a few times last season. We had another battle earlier this season and I think Sunday’s game will be tight again. We both have a few niggling physical problems but that’s normal at this time of the year, we just have to hang in there. Castellana has obtained important results against top teams so far, like against Cuneo and Vibo, which makes it clear they have quality and a big potential. They have found more balance compared to the beginning of season. We’ve been doing well of late but we certainly can’t lower our intensity, we much keep playing with maximum energy and determination on every point. We are aware of our flaws, so far we’ve done well to make up for them with the intensity and the character of each player. We must keep up with the good work on the serve, which is important to perform at the net and in dig. Just like Castellana, we have a crucial series of games coming up in which we’ll need to take points. In the first half of season, those three games had given us confidence and got us on the right track. This is the first one, a big one, we’re at home and we’ll try to win it”.
Bruno De Mori (Sport director BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte): “We’re up against an excellent team, who took on the bounce all the opportunities that came their way. Perugia plays with fighting spirit, they have excellent players such as Vujevic and they have the advantage not to have changed much from last season. We need to be at our best to stop them”.
Serie A2
Round 14
Sidigas Atripalda – B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena. Scappaticcio and co slipped to fourth after their 3-0 defeat against Reggio Emilia. Potenza needs point to create a gap with the bottom team, Matera.
Coserplast Matera – Gherardi SVI Città di Castello. Bottom of the league, Matera needs a huge breakthrough against the league leaders against Città di Castello, back on court after the disappointment of the cup final loss.
Elettrosud Brolo – Tonazzo Padova. The Sicilian team lost 3-0 last week in Monza while Padova is coming off a sweep over Ortona. Tofoli’s team made a change in its roster: Overbeeke’s contract was rescinded while Argentine outside hitter was signed.
Sieco Service Ortona – Caffè Aiello Corigliano. Up to sixth in the table, Corigliano will have Fabroni back as they travel to Ortona, in crisis on a five-game losing slide (all on a 3-0 score).
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – Exprivia Molfetta. The big game of the day. Second against third. Ricci’s team made it seven on the bounce against Potenza Picena and will have Patriarca back. Molfetta could catch up Sora in second place with a win. It will have its full squad as Verhanemann is back in the roster.
Pallavolo Loreto – Conad Reggio Emilia. Loreto should be able to count on Marchiani as it needs points to move away from the danger zone. Reggio began 2013 brilliantly with a 3-0 win over the cup winners, Atripalda. Diachkov is doubtful (knee).
Serie A2 round 14
Saturday January 12 at 6pm
Sidigas Atripalda – B-Chem Golden Plast Potenza Picena
(Bertoletti-Pignataro)
Saturday January 12 at 8.30pm
Coserplast Matera – Gherardi SVI Città di Castello
(Feriozzi-Luciani)
Sunday January 13 at 6pm
Elettrosud Brolo – Tonazzo Padova
(Stancati-Ravallese)
Sieco Service Ortona – Caffè Aiello Corigliano
(Orpianesi-Guerzoni)
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – Exprivia Molfetta Differed RAI Sport 2 (martedì 15/1 ore 19.00)
(Montanari-Andreoni)
Pallavolo Loreto – Conad Reggio Emilia
(Palumbo-Zavater)
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