Gas Sales Bluenergy Volley Piacenza, having concluded their Italian season in the Scudetto Playoff Semifinal, returns to Europe: on Wednesday, April 15 (7:00 PM live on DAZN and SKY) at the LKH Arena in Lüneburg, they will play the first leg of the CEV Volleyball Cup Final against German team SVG Lüneburg.
In the Bundesliga regular season, after 28 matches played, SGV Lüneburg finished first in the standings with 74 points, the result of 26 wins and 2 losses. In the playoffs for the championship, after beating Herrschin in the quarterfinals at home 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-21) in the first leg and away 3-1 (13-25, 25-22, 18-25, 21-25) in the second leg, they defeated Duren 3-0 (25-18, 33-31, 25-15) in Game 1 in front of their home crowd. They will play Game 2 on Sunday, April 19th.
In Europe, Lüneburg began the season in the CEV Champions League, playing in Group D, and finished third in the group, relegated to the CEV Volleyball Cup. In the semifinals, they defeated Belgian side Greenyard Maaseik, winning the first leg in Belgium 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 22-25, 24-26) and the return leg in Germany 3-2 (27-25, 28-26, 23-25, 23-25, 16-14).
Gas Sales Bluenergy Volley Piacenza secured a spot in the CEV Volleyball Cup Final by defeating ACH Volley Ljubljana in the semifinals, defeating them 3-2 in the first leg in Piacenza (30-28, 25-20, 27-29, 20-25, 15-4) and 3-1 in the return leg in Slovenia (19-25, 22-25, 25-13, 22-25).
Since their promotion to the Bundesliga in 2014, Lüneburg has consistently reached the Bundesliga playoffs. This season, they have already secured a spot against Zoi DVV, defeating Friedrichsha in a tiebreak (26-27, 25-21, 16-25, 25-21, 8-15).
The SVG Luneburg team has only three German players on its roster, followed by Americans, Canadians, Swedes, Finns, and Danes, while the libero is Japanese.
A curious fact: Efe Mandiraci is a familiar face to SVG Luneburg fans: two years ago, in the CEV Cup semifinals, he played for Arkas Spor Izmir at the LKH Arena, scoring 21 points in the golden set victory (after a 3-1 lead) that secured Luneburg a spot in the final. In the first leg, a 3-0 win, he scored 12 points.
Lüneburg is about sixty kilometers from Hamburg. It is a city of over seventy thousand inhabitants in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital and largest city of the district of the same name. Lüneburg boasts the titles of “Hanseatic City” and “Large Independent City.”
