Reigning club world and European champions Sir Susa Scai Perugia achieved a four-set home victory over defending Italian champions Itas Trentino Trento in the highest-profile match of the 18^th leg in the Italian men’s volleyball SuperLega Credem Banca over the weekend. Three of the other five matches were resolved after five-set battles.

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At a sold-out Barton Energy hall, with nearly five thousand fans in the stands, Sir Susa Scai Perugia delighted the home crowd with a 3-1 (11-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-18) come-from-behind win over Itas Trentino Trento and improved to 47 points and a 16-2 win-loss record on top of the current standings. Trentino stayed in third place on 39 and 13-5. Sir’s Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara was on fire on the way to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) recognition. He contributed a match-high 24 points, featuring one serving ace and a 64% success rate in attack. Polish outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk added 12 points, including one ace and one kill block, while Argentinean middle blocker Agustin Loser also reached the double digits, chipping in with 10 points, including two blocks and an ace. In the absence of injured star outside Alessandro Michieletto, Trentino were led by 20-year-old Alessandro Bristot (three aces, two kill blocks) and French opposite Theo Faure (two aces and two blocks) with 19 points apiece.

“They were missing Michieletto, and beyond the points for the standings, which are nice, you have to be objective and have intellectual honesty in evaluating everything,” commented Sir’s head coach Angelo Lorenzetti. “Starting from the first set, it's clear that getting out of that technical hole wasn't easy. We did some good, but Alessandro's absence penalized them. In the first set, Trento made us reach a level that wasn't ours, so we leave here satisfied with the three points, but also with some lessons to learn. We need to highlight the things we know how to do, to achieve our goals.”

The weekend offered two more clashes between teams from the playoff zone in the table. In Saturday’s only fixture, Valsa Group Modena came back from a set down twice before celebrating a 3-2 (18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 15-9) home victory over Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and surpassing them in the standings. Modena are now in fourth place on 36 and 12-6, while Gas Sales dropped to fifth on 36 and 11-7. Austrian opposite Paul Buchegger shined on the serve, firing six aces towards the victory. He also put away one kill block to finish with a team-high 18 points. His counterpart Alessandro Bovolenta produced a match-high 20 points, including one ace and one block, for the visitors from Piacenza.

Allianz Milan put together a 3-1 (25-17, 38-36, 12-25, 25-21) home win over Cucine Lube Civitanova to get closer to them in the standings. They improved to 29 and 10-8 in seventh place, while their opponents from Civitanova Marche are still in sixth on 31 and 10-8. In addition to the tense battle for victory between the two teams on the court, the match featured a spectacular scoring race between the two best point makers of the league so far. While Belgian opposite Ferre Reggers contributed 25 points, including two aces, towards Allianz’s success, Lube’s Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov hammered a match-high 30 points, including an impressive five aces and four blocks.

Vero Volley Monza kept within the playoff zone in eighth place despite losing at MA Acqua San Bernardo Cuneo on Sunday. The team from Monza is now on 16 and 5-13, while the SuperLega rookies stayed in 10^th place, now on 14 and 4-14. Cuneo produced a hard-fought 3-2 (25-27, 25-22, 25-20, 23-25, 15-8) victory with a match-high 24 points from 22-year-old French opposite Nathan Feral, who shined from the serving line with five direct points.

Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina and Sonepar Padova Padua also engaged in a five-set battle, which went 3-2 (25-22, 20-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-11) the way of the visitors from Padova, who got closer to the playoff zone, improving to 15 and 6-12. Despite claiming a point and narrowing the distance to main rival Cisterna Volley to six points, bottom-placed Grottazolina, standing in 12^th place on 5 and 1-17, look more and more doomed to relegation. While Serbian opposite Veljko Masulovic led the winners with 20 points, including four blocks, Grottazolina’s 22-year-old Iranian opposite Amir Golzadeh fired five aces, raised two stuffs and hit 20 kills in attack to emerge as the best scorer of the match with a 27-point total.

Cisterna Volley suffered the only straight-set defeat of the leg, a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-23) sweep at the hands of their visitors Rana Verona. The winners kept within two points from leaders Sir as they improved to 45 and 16-2 in second place. Cisterna are second from the bottom, in 11^th place on 11 and 4-14. Verona’s Brazilian opposite Darlan Souza was the best scorer of the match with 18 points to his name.

The 19^th leg next weekend will once again offer one match on Saturday, January 31, and another five on Sunday, February 1.

SuperLega Credem Banca 2025-2026 19th-leg schedule:
Jan 31, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina v Vero Volley Monza
Feb 01, 17:00 local (16:00 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v MA Acqua San Bernardo Cuneo
Feb 01, 17:00 local (16:00 UTC): Sonepar Padova Padua v Sir Susa Scai Perugia
Feb 01, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Rana Verona v Cucine Lube Civitanova
Feb 01, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Valsa Group Modena v Allianz Milan
Feb 01, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza v Cisterna Volley

SuperLega Credem Banca 2025-2026 schedule and results

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