Serie A1


Round 3


 


The Serie A1 is back this weekend with the third round. Highlight of the weekend: the derby between Modena and Piacenza. Interesting encounter between Cuneo and Latina too.


 


Serie A1 round 3


Saturday November 2 at 5.30pm


Altotevere Città di Castello – Calzedonia Verona  Live on RAI Sport 1


Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it


(Sampaolo-Pasquali)  


Sunday November 3 at 5.30pm


Casa Modena – Copra Elior Piacenza  Live on RAI Sport 1


Live streaming su www.raisport.rai.it


(Saltalippi-Bartolini)  


Sunday November 3 at 6pm


Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Andreoli Latina  Live on Sportube.tv


(Sobrero-Puecher)  


Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Sir Safety Perugia


(Pol-Padoan)  


CMC Ravenna – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia


(Genna-Gnani)  


Diatec Trentino – Exprivia Molfetta


(Satanassi-Simbari)  


 


League table


Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 6, Sir Safety Perugia 4, Casa Modena 4, Diatec Trentino 3*, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 3, Exprivia Molfetta 3, Calzedonia Verona 3, Copra Elior Piacenza 3, Altotevere Città di Castello 3, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 1, Andreoli Latina 0*, CMC Ravenna 0.


* 1 game in hand: Diatec Trentino, Andreoli Latina


 


 


Altotevere Città di Castello – Calzedonia Verona


 


Saturday’s game is an unprecedented one between Città di Castello and Verona. Both teams have grabbed one win and one loss so far. Van Walle and co want to forget about the poor defeat against the other promoted side Molfetta, while Verona are keen to add up to their brilliant 3-1 win over Cuneo.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: None


 


Andrea Radici (coach Altotevere Città di Castello): “We have prepared this game very well: it’s been an intense week, the team is ready to show its quality. Verona has top class players with impressive physical strength. They’re coming off a big win over Cuneo. We know we’ll face some difficulties so we’ll have to do a good job of understanding quickly what they are to do well”.


 


Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “Tough game. I think it will be difficult for everyone to win in San Giustino. They are a level above when they play home, it’s a difficult place to go to. This is a very young team, I followed a lot of the kids this summer in the Mediterranean games and at the European Championships, like Matteo Piano and many others that I like. Their coach is obtaining excellent results but we have what it takes to win this game. We know how difficult it will be, but we also know we have the means to win it”.


 


Casa Modena – Copra Elior Piacenza


 


Rai Sport will broadcast the derby between Modena and Piacenza, respectively with 4 and 3 points in the table. The home side has not won this fixture in the PalaCasaModena arena since October 2011. Last season, their only win over Piacenza came in the Italian cup quarter-finals at the tie-break. Piacenza obtained its first league win last week against Vibo but lost in the Champions League in France. Young Vettori needs one point to reach a 100 in the league.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: 27 (16-11 Piacenza)


 


Angelo Lorenzetti (coach Casa Modena): “Piacenza is Piacenza. And this year, they’re even more stronger. They have a lot of quality and a deep bench. We have to look for a breakthrough in each set. This season, we told ourselves we’d forget about the name on our shirt and we’d forget about the one of the opponent too. That’s what we’ll have to do on Sunday. Playing one point at a time. I am very happy with my players, they work hard in the gym. Vettori? A young boy I respect, since I’ve known him he’s matured a lot. On his debuts he already reminded me of Cuminetti and today, he reminds me even more of him”.


 


Hristo Zlatanov (Copra Elior Piacenza): “It all depends on our game, if we play well, we’ll have more of a chance. We’re not having the best of period, we still have an awful lot of work on to be physically in good shape but looking at the few games played, I can see some improvement. Game after game we’re getting better. We need time and games”.


 


Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Andreoli Latina


 


Latina’s only win in Cuneo came in 2005, and their coach was the current Roberto Santilli, who had taken over in 2001 when the club was in the A2. He immediately obtained promotion and came back from January 2004 to October 2005. Still without a point, but with a game in hand, Sottile and co will face a team needing to redeem itself as they only count one point so far.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: 22 (16-6 Cuneo).


 


Jeroen Rauwerdink (Bre Lannutti Cuneo):“Very emotional game for me, because I really enjoyed last season at Latina. I’ll meet up with many former teammates, this will be a special game. We’re coming off two league losses so it will be a difficult one, but at the same time very important. It’s time to gain confidence and take some points. Tuesday’s win in the Cev Cup did us some good. We have to find our rhythm and add to this win, and Sunday’s game is the perfect opportunity to do so”.


 


Dario Simoni (Ass.coach Andreoli Latina): “Cuneo is going through a bad patch even if a lot depends on the fact they play with a different setter than the one they were expecting to at the start of the season. They have an excellent outside hitter in Rouzier, and three quality spikers among whom there’s Rauwerdink, who was with us last year. We’ll need to make sure we receive well as there’s another former Latina player, libero De Pandis. They have two important middle blockers, Kohut and De Togni. Gonzalez could be back and if that’s the case, that will be a totally different matter than the first two games. And they will play home, with their demanding crowd”.


 


 


Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Sir Safety Perugia


 


Serbian invasion in Macerata. Stankovic and Podrascanin for the home side, Petric, Atanasijevic, Mitic, Vujevic, coach Kovac, as well as the Serbo-Croatian Cupkovic. The two teams are aiming high this season. Macerata is top of the league with maximum points and they are perfect in the Champions League too. In the meantime, Perugia managed two tie-break victories over Cuneo and Modena.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (Macerata won both).


 


Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Another important test for us against Perugia, unbeaten in the league. They have many Serbians and the coach, it will be nice to play against them, but we’ll have to be focused, they have an excellent team. We’re coming off four wins between league and Champions League and to keep our winning streak going we’ll need maximum effort”.


 


Simone Buti (Sir Safety Perugia): “We’ll be up against a team built to win it all. It is one of the 2-3 strongest teams of the league, they have quality in every position, and they proved it in the first two rounds. But I think we have proved that we can play too. This will obviously be a tough one, but we’ll try to play at our best, as a team with competitive spirit and character, two factors that helped us a lot when we were behind in the scoreboard in the first two games”.


 


CMC Ravenna – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia


 


Ravenna is looking for its first win of the season, and its first ever against Vibo Valentia. They’re hoping to have setter Toniutti back in time. As for Forni and co, they intend on making it 5 on 5 against Ravenna.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (All Vibo)


 


Marco Bonitta (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’re aiming for the win but we know that to do so we’ll need more consistency and aggressiveness when it matters the most. We need more patience too. Vibo does not have as much pressure as we have, given the fact they already have one victory, they will come here determined to get another positive result”.


 


Antonio Valentini (Assistant coach Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “This will be a difficult game. They have a good team, well put together with young talents. But we have worked well and we’ll go there knowing we can play our best volleyball. In the meantime, we keep working hard to get better as a team”.


 


Diatec Trentino – Exprivia Molfetta


 


First meeting between the Italian champions and the newly promoted Molfetta, both on 3 points but Trento with a game in hand. The southerners will have no fear, as they’re coming off a clear 3-0 win over Città di Castello. Trento is on a three-game winning streak, Champions League included. Piscopo is five points away from the 1500 in regular season and needs just one block to reach the 400 between league and cup.


 


PAST ENCOUNTERS: None


 


Tsvetan Sokolov (Diatec Trentino): “Molfetta is a team we don’t know much about, given that it’s their first experience in the A1 and they have made a lot of changes to the group that earn promotion. This is already a good reason to be cautious. Our scout worked hard to give us accurate information, it will be up to us to put that into practice to try to get an important win. We have to learn from our mistakes: despite the fact we won 3-0 in the last two games, we made quite a few but we did a good job to limit them when it mattered most. Hopefully, this will go the same way against Molfetta”.


 


Ninni De Nicolo (Sport director Exprivia Molfetta): “After Macerata, we’re facing another big favourite for the league title, Trentino. The victory over Città di Castello gave us a boost but we can’t afford to relax. They’re coming off victories over Ravenna and in the Champions League, we’ll have to try to make things hard for them. Hopefully, we’ll get our first points away from home”.


 


 


Serie A2


Round 3


 


We’re reached round 3 in Italy’s second division. There are four unbeaten teams left: the two teams from the Lombardy region, Monza and Cantù, lead the way with just a point advantage on Matera and Potenza Picena.


 


Elettrosud Brolo – Tonazzo Padova. Brolo will try everything to get off the starting blocks in this second consecutive home game as it was beaten in the first two rounds by Cantù and Sora. Padova is sixth with four points. It was defeated in Matera in the last round despite being 2-0 up.


 


Cassa Rurale Cantù – Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora. Cantù could not have started any better in its first ever try in the A2: two three-point victories at the expense of Brolo and Avellino away. Tough test for the leaders against Sora, who’s coming off an away win in Brolo.


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