The goal has been achieved. With more difficulty than expected, Negrini CTE Acqui Terme has officially qualified for the round of 16 of the 2025-26 men’s Serie A3 playoffs.
This year’s rules call for home-and-away matches, with teams from the White Group and the Blue Group immediately facing off against each other, with a two-legged tie featuring the return leg and a possible Golden Set at the home of the higher-ranked team in the regular season. With their victory over Personal Time San Donà di Piave and the concomitant defeat of CUS Cagliari, the Terme team advances to the final draw as sixth-place team in the White Group, facing the third-place team in the Blue Group: JV Gioia Del Colle.
The Piedmontese team has earned 28 points in the standings, the result of 10 wins and 10 losses. The Apulian team has 32 points with 10 wins and 8 losses. Both teams have had their ups and downs, but now it’s time to reset what they’ve achieved so far.
Coach Simone Serafini presents the challenge, starting with the journey so far: “We’ve finally achieved our goal. Although the road was more tortuous and difficult than expected, we managed to reach the goal we had set ourselves as a club and as a team: qualifying for the Serie A3 championship playoffs. In sports, and in volleyball in particular, nothing is ever a given; every result must be earned on the court. I must say we deservedly did it, especially supported by recent performances that have shown clear improvement. Even though at certain points during the season, qualification seemed far from certain, we rolled up our sleeves and now we’re here. We got to play everything in the last match against San Donà, a game that was a real “do or die” for us. I was very satisfied that access to the playoffs depended entirely on us, in a direct match, without having to look at the results on the other courts. It was like experiencing an early playoff, or a “play-in” to use the American term: a A knockout tournament where failure is not an option. The tension during the two weeks of preparation was palpable and different from the regular season, but the boys did a great job of overcoming the difficulties and setbacks, like the one we had in the second set. We showed we were there for almost the entire match and, thanks to the simultaneous defeat in Cagliari, we entered the draw in sixth place in the standings.
