The Campania team, under Gianluca Graziosi’s coaching management since November 25th, finished the regular season in fifth place (15 wins in 26 games), but in the quarterfinals they overturned the odds against favored Consar Ravenna. After losing Game 1, the Norman team first leveled the series (3-0 at home) and then, trailing 2-0, completely overturned the results of Game 3 with a 3-2 victory in Emilia-Romagna. The Pala De Andrè match also provided an opportunity to bring back opposite hitter Matheus Motzo, who had been struggling with injury issues for a long time but returned in style with 19 points.
The situation with the ABBA infirmary, however, is in the opposite direction. The reference is to spiker Karli Allik, whose season ended prematurely last Sunday following a compound mid-proximal diaphyseal fracture sustained in the third set of Game 3 of the quarterfinals. Replacing him in the fourth and fifth sets, which proved decisive in the victory over Porto Viro, was an excellent Antonino Suraci, who scored eight points.
White-and-blue setter Mattia Catone: “It will certainly be a tough series, like all playoff matches. They have regained confidence thanks to Motzo’s return, and since the beginning of the season they have been a solid team that plays excellent volleyball. We are deeply disappointed by Karli (Allik)’s absence from now until the end of the season, but this must in no way detract from our ideals and our way of playing. It will be an intense battle, both technically and competitively.”
“The playoffs are very difficult, we knew it. Every round is,” says coach Simone Di Tommaso, “and Aversa is a great team. We haven’t had much time to recharge after the quarterfinals, but we’ll be ready. I want to tell everyone to stay close, to rally around these guys because they’re doing something incredible. I think it’s rare to be able to admire a team with these human values, before the technical ones, and I think it’s a spectacle worth experiencing alongside this team that, I repeat, is doing something incredible this season.
