One hundred appearances for him too. And of course, a plaque for him too: Augusto Quarta, the middle blocker who has been an absolute guarantee for ErmGroup Altotevere for four years, both in attack with his first half and very often at the block. Last Saturday’s game against Sarlux Sarroch was a sort of personal compendium: of the ten points he scored, exactly half—five—were scored with winning blocks. “Winning the second leg of the quarterfinals, overturning the first leg,” the almost 33-year-old player from Bologna began, “was the best way to celebrate my 100th appearance for the white and blue jersey. I’m happy because we played well and as a team: I saw less individualism and more of a group effort, and it’s clear that winning the first set was crucial, as it proved to be the key to the match. Winning the opening set gave us confidence: I’m not saying we controlled the match as it went along, because every time we tried to break away, we found ourselves right behind them, but we did well to take the set in crucial moments.” The block, as we were saying: a key aspect that is a real strength for Quarta and which resolved the second set with a 7-1 run from 18-18. “Yes, that’s true,” he emphasizes, “because we studied our opponents carefully and followed the coaches’ instructions on the pitch. It’s a source of satisfaction to have secured a spot in the semifinals for the second time in a row, which was absolutely not a given. This year, there aren’t two separate draws: it’s a single semifinal, so it means we’re among the top five teams overall in Serie A3, and now we’ll give it our all.” Regarding yet another match against Belluno, who have won against Altotevere so far, Quarta isn’t making too much of a fuss: “I expect two very good matches, and it’s only natural that, at this point, any other opponent would have been equally strong. The higher we go, the more difficult the task becomes, so we’ll simply have to try to have fun and express ourselves to the best of our ability, playing with a relaxed and therefore mentally free mind. We should be proud of what we’ve done: if Belluno were to beat us again, it would mean we’d say ‘well done’ to them, even if a negative result won’t ruin our great year.”
