World against European champions in Italian Supercoppa final

Reigning club world champions Sir Susa Vim Perugia and reigning European club champions Itas Trentino Trento ill lock horns for the trophy of the 29^th edition of the Italian men’s super cup trophy. Sunday’s 2024 Del Monte Supercoppa final at the Palazzo Wanny in Florence will start at 18:00 local time (16:00 UTC). In Saturday’s semifinals, Sir and Trentino defeated Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza in four sets and Vero Volley Monza in straight sets, respectively.

• Watch the Supercoppa on VBTV.

In the first semifinal, the defending super cup holders from Perugia achieved a 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 25-21) victory over Gas Sales. Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara led the way with 15 points, including three aces and a kill block. At his official debut for Sir, Japanese star outside hitter Yuki Ishikawa entered the match as a substitution for Ukrainian starter Oleh Plotnytskyi, but reached the double digits with 12 points, including the match winner. Argentinean middle blocker Agustin Loser and Polish outside Kamil Semeniuk finished with 11 and 10 points for the winners, respectively. Gas Sales’ Canadian outside Stephen Maar was the best scorer of the match with 18 points, among which three aces and one kill block. Opposite Yuri Romano added another 12 points, while Serbian outside Uros Kovacevic finished with 10.

“The serve and, above all, the reception didn’t work and against teams like Perugia, if you don’t put the ball in the three meters a few times, everything becomes difficult,” commented Gas Sales’ head coach Andrea Anastasi. “Ours is a completely new reception line and it takes time. I’m confident, because I saw a lot of desire on the court and, above all, the boys believed in it until the end. They gave everything they could and had at this moment, but it wasn’t enough to put Perugia in difficulty.”

The second semifinal was a straight-set affair, in which Trentino mastered a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-23) shutout of Vero Volley. Outside hitter Daniele Lavia delivered a match-high 17 points, including three aces, towards the victory. His cross-court teammate Alessandro Michieletto added another 13 points. Trentino’s new American opposite Gabriel Garcia subbed in for Luxembourg’s Kamil Rychlicki during the second set, but, spiking at a 75% success rate, also managed to reach the double digits with 11 points to his name. For Vero Volley, Finnish outside Luka Marttila scored 15 times, while Canadian opposite Arthur Szwarc produced 14 points.

“We knew we had to suffer and we were good at it, knowing full well that we couldn't be perfect,” said setter Riccardo Sbertoli, who played his first official match as the new Trentino captain. “When we were imperfect, we made up for it with character. Now we are preparing to play this final, a beautiful match to play. We want to play a lot of them this season and starting like this is very gratifying.”

It will be Trentino’s ninth and Sir’s sixth super cup final. The two clubs have met six times in the semifinals of the competition, but this is the first time they will meet in the trophy showdown. Sir have won the most recent five of their six Supercoppa finals, all within the last seven editions of the competition – in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Trentino have won the trophy three times, in 2011, 2013 and 2021. The club from Perugia leads the head-to-head series against their opponents from Trento by 30-24 in wins. All three of their encounters during the 2023-2024 season were resolved in four sets. They exchanged victories during the SuperLega Credem Banca regular season, while Sir won the Supercoppa semifinal last fall. The Block Devils qualified for the current edition of the Italian super cup as national champions, while the Yellow-and-Blues took the spot for the SuperLega regular season winners.

Del Monte Supercoppa 2024: results and schedule

Quick links:
Del Monte Supercoppa Italiana 2024
VBTV
Volleyball World Facebook
Volleyball World X
Volleyball World Instagram
Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter