The big opportunity has come for him too and he didn’t let it slip away. The unavailability of Davide Marra has promoted the 23-year-old Gian Marco Cioffi as a starter, returning to this role after coach Marco Bartolini had used it in the initial part of the championship. And he, on one occasion, took away the satisfaction of placing an ace and scoring his first point in Serie A3, then last Sunday he was among the protagonists of the beautiful feat achieved by ErmGroup San Giustino at the PalaRaschi against Wimore Parma. As the match went on, Cioffi found himself more and more at ease and in the fourth set he had the reactivity of a cat in some precious defenses. But how was this “real” debut in the league? “Exciting – Cioffi replies immediately – because I haven’t played regularly for a while, exactly since the days of Serie B in Città di Castello. I really needed to get into the atmosphere of the match and I must say that my teammates helped me, making me feel an integral part of a formation that was very united, as we had said we would do from the start, since we had to make up for Marra’s absences and initially also by Hristoskov. Moreover, replacing Marra is not easy: he is a pawn of undoubted quality and experience, who needs no introduction and behaves like a captain all the way. It was nice, therefore, to tread the taraflex and after breaking the ice I relaxed”. Did you do better in reception or defense? “Let’s say that defense is my strength compared to reception, because in the latter I need more attention, while when I have to defend I’m fast and I position myself well”. And a 3-1 has arrived which demonstrates the maturity acquired by the group. What was the key to a match won with full merit on the field of an opponent who was certainly not affordable? “The team response that occurred after the second set, clearly lost 25-14. It wasn’t easy to get the game back in hand, but we did it by winning a third fraction with the same set. Parma had also returned from a good period of form and so our skill was not to lower the level of attention”. An almost certain salvation and with second place in the standings, now the goal becomes that of the play-offs? “We think game after game: we are a freshman and sometimes it doesn’t take much to get back into bad waters.
