After winning the Del Monte® Coppa Italia A3 on March 8th in Belluno, Domotek Reggio Calabria also won the Del Monte® Supercoppa A3 (now in its fifth edition), defeating this season’s historic rival, Conad Reggio Emilia, at the PalaBigi in Reggio Emilia. A never-ending match, which ended in a tie-break, demonstrated the two teams’ desire to put on another show in their seventh match against each other. In the first set, the home team prevailed, prevailing over the Calabrian team in deuce (26-24), then Domotek turned the score around by winning the second and third sets (21-25 and 20-25). The Calabrian team seemed to be able to close out the game in four sets, but Conad had other ideas and, encouraged by captain Mian, reopened the set and took it with a score of 31-29. In the tiebreaker, however, Domotek regained control and won 10-15, giving their fans their second trophy of the season.
The top scorer of the match, however, was Conad Reggio Emilia’s opposite hitter, Riccardo Mian, with 40 points, the result of 37 hitters (60% success rate), 2 blocks, and 1 service winner. Tonight’s performance was the Conad home team’s best scoring performance since he played in Serie A.
Presenting the medals and the Del Monte® Supercoppa trophy to the winning team were Fabio Fistetto, CEO of the Lega Pallavolo Serie A, and Stefano Bianchini, councilor of the Italian Volleyball Federation. Conad Reggio Emilia was presented with the awards by Michele Miccolis, councilor of the Lega Pallavolo Serie A, and Valeria Prampolini, president of the Reggio Emilia Municipal Sports Foundation.
DEL MONTE® MVP: Domenico Laganà (Domotek Reggio Calabria)
ATTENDANCE: 712
Riccardo Mian (Conad Reggio Emilia): “We’re very disappointed, because we made an incredible comeback in the fourth set, but in the fifth we felt a bit tired and we weren’t able to finish, thanks also to an excellent Reggio Calabria. This year, however, we’ve achieved something extraordinary, and I’m incredibly proud of my team for their promotion to A2.”
Domenico Laganà (Domotek Reggio Calabria): “This is the seventh time we’ve played against Reggio Emilia, we know each other by heart by now, and I think this spectacular 3-2 is the perfect ending to such a long series. I want to dedicate this victory first and foremost to my family, who are always there, and to my son, but also to my teammate Matteo Mancinelli, who suffered a bad injury last week and is not here with us today. Yesterday he sent us a beautiful message, which gave me a boost for this match.
