Italian men's SuperLeague takes new twist as Lube fall

Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza stunned defending champions Cucine Lube Civitanova in Round 2 of the Italian men's SuperLega Credem Banca in the latest twist to the world's top domestic competition.

With Turkey's Adis Lagumdzija scoring a massive 35 points after attacking for 68% (31/48), Piacenza twice came from behind to shock Lube 3-2 (23-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 15-12) and remain undefeated after two matches.

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Piacenza are now one of only four undefeated sides after both Itas Trentino and Sir Safety Conad Perugia came away victorious on Day 2 and Allianz Milan bagged a dramatic win in their first match of the season.

Despite a match high of 20 points (including four aces) by Japan's Yuji Nishida, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia fell at home to Trentino 3-1 (25-21, 25-16, 27-29, 25-21).

Trentino, who enjoyed some very distributed scoring all-round (with rising star Alessandro Michieletto just emerging above the crowd on 17 points) and with Serbia's Srecko Lisinac bringing down seven blocks, could in fact have wrapped it up in three, but failed to convert their sole match point in the third.

Perugia, meanwhile, took down Verona Volley 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23) on the back of 19 points each by USA's Matt Anderson and Poland's Cuba-born Wilfredo Leon.

And in Milan the hosts denied Vero Volley Monza a two-set lead, cancelling as many as four set points in the second, and went on to score a 3-2 (18-25, 27-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-8) victory in their debut match of the season.

Milan were led by USA's Thomas Jaeschke who bagged 18 points (though the match high of 19 came from Monza's Donovan Dzavoronok) with France's Chinenyeze Barthelemy attacking for 80% (12/15) to earn the MVP of the match award.

It was the only home win of the weekend in the SuperLeague.

In other weekend action in Italy, Gioiella Prisma Taranto outblocked Consar RCM Ravenna 10 to 1 for a huge 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-19) win on the road and Kioene Padova ousted Top Volley Cisterna 3-1 (25-2, 25-22, 19-25, 25-22) after Eric Loeppky scored 17 points to cancel out the match high of 22 by fellow-Canadian Stephen Maar.

The League continues next weekend with Round 3 of the Regular Season, with all matches streamed live on VolleyballWorld.tv.

Get all the results, statistics and more on the official website of the Italian men's League.