The UnipolSai MVP of the League playoffs quarter-finals is Verona’s Uros Kovacevic, who recently helped his team win the Challenge Cup. The Serbian spiker has shined throughout the never-ending series against Perugia. His influence in the two tie-break victories in Game 3 and Game 4 was huge as he scored 21 and 17 points respectively. Kovacevic will receive his award on April 9 before the Challenge playoffs quarter-finals Game 1 against CMC Romagna.
We’re down to four teams for the League title 2016. The semi-final series that will be played on the best of five encounters will reveal the name of the two clubs that will fight it out for the coveted prize.
Civitanova has the momentum. The regular season champions have also qualified for the Champions League final four and they cruised through the league quarters at the expense of Latina. The won the series in three games, having suffered a little bit only in the first one. They will take on Perugia in a remake of the title game 2014. The Block Devils overcame the disappointment of the CEV Cup ousting as they clinched their qualification at the tie-break of Game 5 in Verona. A huge road win after being pegged back from 2-0 up to 2-2 in the series. Four of the five games finished at the tie-break. In the end, Perugia’s more accurate attack had the better of the excellent reception and blocking of Verona.
Modena is up against Trento for the remake of so many prestigious finals, like last year’s league final 2015, won by Trento, or the SuperCup and Italian Cup (3-0) won by Modena this season. The team of Angelo Lorenzetti, who made official his departure of the club at the end of the season before the semi-finals, had to step up a gear in the quarters to get rid of a feisty Padova team. Third in the regular season behind Modena, Trento has all the intention in the world to keep its title. And they are full of confidence following their qualification into the Champions League final four. The affront of the 3-0 conceded in the Italian Cup final by Modena was partially erased by the 3-2 road victory that followed three days later. In the quarter-finals, the Trento stars found themselves in a tricky situation, so much so that they were behind after one set of Game 5. A strong reaction was needed to overcome the Molfetta side and they’ll need more of that to beat Modena.
League playoffs Semi-final Game 1 (Series to be played on the best of 5)
Saturday 9 April at 6pm
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova – Sir Safety Conad Perugia Live on Lega Volley Channel
Saturday 9 April at 8.15pm
DHL Modena – Diatec Trentino Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Game 2
Tuesday 12 April at 8.15pm
Sir Safety Conad Perugia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
Tuesday 12 April at 8.30pm
Diatec Trentino – DHL Modena Live on Lega Volley Channel
Past encounters: 13 (10-3 Civitanova)
This season: 2 games: Civitanova won both, 3-0 away then 3-1 home
In the playoffs: 4 meetings in a final: Civitanova won 3 games to 1
Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “Perugia is definitely a very strong opponent. To beat them we’ll have to be at our best level. Obviously we’ll need to give special attention to their scorer Atanasijevic. Our goal is to get off to a good start in the series and think one game at a time”.
Simone Buti (Sir Safety Conad Perugia): “We went through so much to get in this semi-final and now we’ll have a go at it! In the extremely long quarter-final , we’ve seen that when we are composed and play our game, we’re capable of reaching a very high level. Civitano0va is clearly an extremely strong team but we’ll try to have our say in the matter from the beginning”.
DHL Modena – Diatec Trentino
Past encounters: 58 (Trento 35-23)
This season: 4 meetings: Trento won both regular season games, 3-2 home then 3-2 away. They also met in the Italian Cup final, which Modena won 3-0, and Modena also beat Trento in the SuperCup 3-2.
In the playoffs: 21 games: 12 in the quarter-finals (6 wins each), 5 in the semi-finals (3-2 Trento) and 4 in the final (3-1 Trento)
Andrea Sartoretti (GM DHL Modena): “It’s the start of the semi-finals and the money time. Useless to say that I expect to see some great volleyball and the team at its best. The boys are extremely motivated for the game and there is a lot of excitement in the city. We’ll play in front of a sold-out crowd tomorrow in the PalaPanini arena, the fans will be there for us, and we’ll be ready to give 110%”.
Mitar Djuric (Diatec Trentino): “It’s always nice to play games of this level against Modena, this fixture has become a must in modern volleyball. I am sure we’ll play the whole series in front of packed arenas, it should be extremely exciting and spectacular. Our opponents are extremely strong, we know them well, it will be a battle in every single play”.
Eight teams line up to chase the European dream. The winner of those playoffs will indeed take part in next season’s Challenge Cup. Some kind of exciting second chance given to some who might have had a bitter regular season or might have disappointingly come out of the league playoffs quarter-finals.
Roller Coaster of emotions for Verona. In just a few days, they went from the euphoria of the Challenge Cup triumph to the elimination of the league playoffs, from a tie-break win in Siberia and the hoard of supporters welcoming them at the airport to start the celebrations going to the disappointment of a last minute Game 5 defeat at home sending them out of the title race. Still, Verona spent the whole season among the bests, with a fourth place in the regular season. Named MVP of the league quarter-finals, Kovacevic will try to make the difference again when they take on CMC Romagna this Sunday. The latter had ups and downs this season and finished last of the Challenge playoffs preliminary group stage. Romagna has already beaten Verona in Challenge quarter-final in the past.
Swept by Civitanova after a tight first game lost at the tie-break followed by two severe defeat, Ninfa Latina has been out of action for a long time. They will face Milan. Last from bottom in the regular season, they however finished top of the Challenge playoffs group stage with road wins over Romagna and Monza.
Now that the dream of the league semi-finals is over, Molfetta will now wish for a participation in a European competition through these playoffs challenge. Sixth in the regular season, the southerners have had no less than 3 coaches this season but they found their rhythm on time for the big games with coach Vincenzo Di Pinto. The will have the court advantage, something they did the most of to send Trentino in crisis in the league quarter-finals. They will now take on Monza, now coached by Francesco Cattaneo as Oreste Vacondio moved to GM.
Seventh of the regular season, Padova did fairly well in the league quarter-finals. They took Game 2 against Modena and even went close of winning another one in Game 4. In spite of the elimination, Baldovin’s men are now more aware of how capable they are and could well be a good outsider for the Challenge playoffs. Cinderella of the SuperLega, Piacenza stepped up to a different level in the Challenge playoffs group phase: they went from 8 points from the whole season to the 5 points of that group stage. Zlatanov and co registered indeed back to back wins against Romagna home and Milan away. Piacenza will be without Davidson Lampariello, who went back to Brazil for family matters.
Challenge playoffs, quarter-finals Game 1 (Series to be played on the best of 3)
Saturday 9 April at 8.30pm
Calzedonia Verona– CMC Romagna Live on Lega Volley Channel
Sunday 10 April at 6pm
Ninfa Latina– Revivre Milano Live on Lega Volley Channel
Exprivia Molfetta– Gi Group Monza Live on Lega Volley Channel
Tonazzo Padova– LPR Piacenza Live on Lega Volley Channel
Quarter-finals Game 2
Wednesday 13 April at 8.30pm
CMC Romagna – Calzedonia Verona Live on Lega Volley Channel
Revivre Milano – Ninfa Latina Live on Lega Volley Channel
Gi Group Monza – Exprivia Molfetta Live on Lega Volley Channel
LPR Piacenza – Tonazzo Padova Live on Lega Volley Channel
Challenge Playoffs UnipolSai
Calzedonia Verona – CMC Romagna
Past encounters: 12 (7-5 Verona)
This season: 2 games, Verona won both, 3-0 away then 3-1 home.
Andrea Giani (coach Calzedonia Verona): “The season goes on with the Challenge playoffs. It clearly has a different value compared to the league quarter-finals but we’ll start this new challenge with a place in Europe at stake. The qualification is a target that could be reached in a different way depending on the result of the series between Civitanova and Perugia, which could get us into the CEV Cup. This is a game that has a different taste compared to the previous ones we played, but we have to play to the best of our abilities to guarantee ourselves a place in Europe. Romagna is a good team, they had a decent season, we have to be very careful”.
Waldo Kantor (coach CMC Romagna): “Verona is a great team, they have so many strong players, from Kovacevic to Baranowicz, and the middle blockers Anzani and Zingel, a very tough task for us. They’ve come out of the playoffs but they are professionals and they get on court to do their best and win. They’ve had an intense period, they’ll surely be a bit tired but I am sure it will be a battle”.
Ninfa Latina – Revivre Milano
Past encounters: 4 (3-1 Latina)
This season: 2 games: both won at home, first Latina 3-2 then Milan 3-1.
Camillo Placì (coach Ninfa Latina): “We want to end this season with some good results. We’ll be up against Milan who put together a string of good results. They found their balance and they have a deep roster. But we’re ready to play this Sunday game and fight to go through in this series on the best of three games”.
Aimone Alletti (Revivre Milano): “In these games, what matters the most is who finds more motivation. Both Latina and ourselves have had ample time to prepare the game. We’ll see on Sunday who wants it more. It’s true that this year there is always a special motivation against Latina”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Gi Group Monza
Past encounters: 9 (6-3 Molfetta)
This season: 2 games: Monza won both, 3-1 home then 3-1 away
Davide Candellaro (Exprivia Molfetta): “Definitely nothing to do with the league playoffs, but the spot in Europe is as attractive to us as it is for the others. We’ll not underestimate anything. We recharged our batteries after the Trento series, even if the efforts of the season are taking their toll. It will be a good game against Monza. In the league we did not take any points so we’re keen to redeem ourselves”.
Iacopo Botto (Gi Group Monza): “We’ll be up against a team that will surely give everything to qualify. Hopefully after five hard-fought games and the elimination against Trento, they’ll have lost some focus and energy. We know how strong they can be at home: they play with great intensity, they hit the serve hard, we’ll have to watch out for that. This is a new phase, our win in the Apulia in regular season does not count any more. We just have to focus on doing the best we can”.
Tonazzo Padova – LPR Piacenza
Past encounters: 24 (15-9 Piacenza)
Precedenti in questo Campionato: 2 games: Padova won both, 3-1 away then 3-0 home.
Manuel Coscione (LPR Piacenza): “Padova played some good volleyball in the second half of season. They have been aggressive at the net, played well in attack and played great dig. This will definitely be tough, they play home, there will be a heated atmosphere. We’ll have to be careful in reception because they’ll try to make it hard for us. And we’ll have to put them under pressure too and not get tense when things won’t go our way”.
Valerio Baldovin (coach Tonazzo Padova): “An important phase of the season is behind us. The team did extremely well but now starts a new chapter. We’ll be ready to take on Piacenza, who will try to salvage their season. This will be a tricky series, because they’ve been making a lot of progress. They had some excellent games at the end of the Regular Season and in the Challenge playoffs group stage before the quarter-finals. But we’ll give maximum effort like we always do. This will be an opportunity to try out all the solutions that we have at our disposal”.
