Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and Sir Susa Vim Perugia were the first teams to book their spots in the Italian men’s SuperLega Credem Banca semifinal playoffs. Over the weekend, they closed off their quarterfinal series with three straight wins each and are now awaiting their opponents in the races for the final. Meanwhile, Itas Trentino Trento and Cucine Lube Civitanova won the third-leg games in the other two quarterfinals to edge ahead to within a win from the semis.

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Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza once again disregarded Rana Verona’s higher standing from the regular season and home-court advantage and, in front of well over five thousand spectators, put together a 3-1 (16-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-19) away victory over their quarterfinal opponent on Saturday to close the series at 3-0 in wins and progress to the semifinals. The blocking made the big difference in the match. The visitors put up 12 stuffs against three for Verona. Cuban middle blocker Robertlandy Simon authored five of those to finish with 12 points. Another three kill blocks were delivered by Canadian outside hitter Stephen Maar, who finished with 15 points. His Turkish cross-court teammate Ramazan Efe Mandiraci led Gas Sales’ scorers with 17 points, including four of the team’s 10 aces. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award went to Italian opposite Yuri Romano, who scored 15 times in the match. Verona’s Malian opposite Noumory Keita was above all with 21 points to his name.

“We are playing well and we can do even better,” Robertlandy Simon commented. “We played very well and winning two consecutive games in Verona is not something everyone can do. We did it and we should be proud of it, now we focus on the semifinals, there is still a lot of work to do.”

In Sunday’s closing match, defending champions Sir Susa Vim Perugia achieved a 3-2 (25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22) home win over Valsa Group Modena and claimed a spot in the semifinals. Ukrainian outside Oleh Plotnytskyi led the block Devils with 16 points, including the match winner. His tally featured two aces and two kill blocks. The MVP award went to Argentinean middle Agustin Loser, who also raised two kill blocks and spiked at a 67% success rate to finish with 12 points. Sir’s Polish outside Kamil Semeniuk also reached the double digits with 10 points. Modena’s Belarusian outside Uladzislau Davyskiba was the best scorer of the match with 21 points, including three of his team’s seven aces and three blocks.

Itas Trentino Trento recovered from last week’s surprising loss at Cisterna Volley and edged ahead in the best-of-five series again after a 3-1 (25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 25-21) home win on Sunday. Outside hitters Alessandro Michieletto and Daniele Lavia led the way with 20 and 19 points, respectively, each firing two aces towards the victory. The latter was honored as match MVP. Luxembourgish opposite Kamil Rychlicki and Slovenian middle Jan Kozamernik added 14 and 11 points, respectively. French opposite Theo Faure was Cisterna’s most prolific scorer with 17 points.

Just like the other three third-leg quarterfinals, the match between Cucine Lube Civitanova and Allianz Milan was also resolved in four sets. The Coppa Italia winners celebrated a 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19) home victory and took their first lead in the series, 2-1 in wins. Lube’s Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov was on fire. He put away four kill blocks and an ace to lead his team with a total of 22 points and earn the MVP award. His cross-court teammate Mattia Bottolo added another 16 points, including two aces and two blocks. Allianz’s Belgian opposite Ferre Reggers emerged as the best scorer with a match-high 25 points, including five aces and two blocks.

The fourth leg of the two quarterfinal playoffs that are still alive will be played on Wednesday, March 26.

SuperLega Credem Banca 2024-2025 quarterfinal playoffs, 4th leg:
Mar 26, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Allianz Milan v Cucine Lube Civitanova
Mar 26, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Cisterna Volley Itas Trentino Trento

SuperLega Credem Banca 2024-2025 schedule and results

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