A brand new Serie A2 was introduced in the Volley Market 2016. Not only the number of teams has changed (20) but each club will be able to play a lot of games and maintain competitive goals till the end.
The teams will be divided into two groups: White and Blue. The ranking that generated it was based on last season’s results, without any geographical criteria.
Here are the two groups with the ranking:
WHITE GROUP
- Maury’s Italiana Assicurazioni Tuscania
- Emma Villas Siena
- Volley Potentino Potenza Picena
- Sieco Service Ortona
- Club Italia Roma
- Aurispa Alessano
- Sigma Aversa
- BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte
- Kemas Lamipel Santa Croce
- Rinascita Lagonegro
BLUE GROUP
- Ceramica Globo Civita Castellana
- Volley Tricolore Reggio Emilia
- Pool Libertas Cantù
- VBC Mondovì
- Centrale del Latte McDonald’s Brescia
- Materdominivolley.it Castellana Grotte
- Sol Lucernari Montecchio Maggiore
- Monini Spoleto
- Videx Grottazzolina
- Caloni Agnelli Bergamo
There will be 18 rounds on the menu, home and away. Halfway through the season, the top four of the each group will qualify for the Del Monte Italian Cup A2. At the end of the regular season, the top 5 teams of each group will play for promotion, while the teams from 6th to 10th place will battle it out to stay up.
In the group for promotion, the match-ups already played in regular season will be taken into account. Those games will not be repeated. At the end, the top 8 teams will play in the playoffs quarter-finals. This will be the end of the season for the other two. The playoffs quarter-finals will be played on the best of three, while the semi-finals and final on the best of five.
Five teams will be relegated. In the group to stay up, the top two teams will be safe. The last two will go down in the Serie B. The remaining six teams will match-up (3rd vs 8th, 4th vs 7th, 5th vs 6th) in a playout on the best of 5 games. The three winners are safe, the other three go down in the Serie B.
Beginning of Regular Season Serie A2 UnipolSai: Sunday 9 October
End of Regular Season: Sunday 5 February
Beginning of Promotion Pool and Pool to stay up: Sunday 12 February
End Pool Promotion: Sunday 19 March
End Pool to stay up: Sunday 2 April
Beginning of playoffs: Sunday 26 March
Beginning of Play outs: Sunday 9 April
End playoffs: Sunday 15 May
End Play outs: Sunday 30 April
Del Monte® Italian Cup Serie A2
Quarter-finals: Thursday 15 December
Semi-finals: Thursday 29 December
Final: Sunday 29 January
All the games will be live on Lega Volley Channel
