Milano counted on a stellar performance from star opposite Paola Egonu, who produced an astonishing 36 points (32 kills, two blocks, two aces), but couldn’t handle Casalmaggiore’s well-diversified offense, which had American outside hitter Simone Lee (21 points), Polish opposite Malwina Smarzek (18) and Italian outside hitter Elena Perinelli (12) all reaching double digits.
“We knew Egonu was going to come out and score a lot of points, as she always does,” said libero Chiara De Bortoli. “Our plan was to try and stop their other players and we did a good job with that. We’re really happy with this victory.”
Savino Del Bene Scandicci benefited from Novara’s (53 points, 18 wins) and Milano’s defeats to get past both of their rivals in the standings, moving up to second place with 55 points (19 wins). Scandicci got the job done at home against Wash4Green Pinerolo, winning 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-13).
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Despite the defeat, Pinerolo ended the day closer to the playoffs than they started it, thanks to Megabox Ondulati Savio Vallefoglia’s 3-0 (25-25, 30-28, 26-24) road win over Il Bisonte Firenze. With the result, Firenze remained with 24 points (nine wins) and can no longer catch either Pinerolo or Vallefoglia, who have 34 points (11 wins), until the end of the regular season.
Casalmaggiore pose the only threat to their playoff appearance now, but would have to take nine points in their remaining three matches and hope that one of Pinerolo or Vallefoglia don’t add any points in order to catch them and take the decision to the tie-breakers.
Itas Trentino, who didn’t get on the court on Wednesday and will face Volley Bergamo on March 20, saw their situation in the battle to avoid relegation get considerably worse with 12th-placed Honda Olivero S. Bernardo Cuneo’s 3-2 (25-21, 27-25, 23-25, 18-25, 18-16) win over Roma Volley Club.