The playoffs are quickly approaching in the SuperLega Credem Banca and some interesting battles for positions in the standings are set to take place this weekend in the Italian League.
Superlega 2022
Lube and Piacenza duel for SuperLega’s fourth place
Tied with 30 points, the rivals will clash on Sunday – watch live on VBTV
Published 07:55, 17 Feb 2023
World champion Yuri Romanó will lead Perugia's offence against Lube
Among them is one involving defending champions Cucine Lube Civitanova and rivals Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza, who clash on Sunday, at 18:00 local time (17:00 UTC), in Civitanova Marche.
· Watch all SuperLega Credem Banca matches live or on demand on VBTV.
The teams are currently tied in fourth place in the Italian League with the same campaign of 30 points and ten victories and, with only two other weekends of play before the end of the regular season, will heavily rely on the result of Sunday’s encounter to finish above their opponents.
Although a climb to third place seems challenging for both Lube and Piacenza considering Itas Trentino currently have a six-point edge with a total of 36, finishing fourth would be extremely beneficial for either team as it would guarantee them homecourt advantage in the series of the first round of the playoffs.
Lube, who also have the advantage of an additional match to play before the end of the regular season, after last weekend’s encounter with Emma Villas Aubay Siena ended up being postponed, have been largely successful against Piacenza, and won all but one of the last 20 matches involving the two teams, including the one in the first leg of the 2022-2023 Italian League in which they prevailed in the tie-breaker.
The home team also had more time to prepare for this weekend’s encounter, with their last match dating back to two weeks ago. Piacenza, on the other hand, were on the court as recently as Wednesday, when they had to play a full match and a golden set against France’s Montpellier to advance in the CEV Cup.
Piacenza, however, have taken strength from their rivals’ past successes and currently have four players in their squad who have recently been with Lube, most notably Brazilian outside hitters Ricardo Lucarelli and Yoandy Leal and Cuban middle blocker Robertlandy Simon.
“It will be fun to face friends in such an important match,” said Lube’s outside hitter Marlon Yant. “It will be nice to meet Lucarelli, Leal and Simon, players who helped me a lot when I first arrived in Italy and with whom I had great success. It will be weird to see them as opponents, but we’ll be fighting for fourth place and will play with everything we have to make our fans happy.”
Another interesting battle will take place at the bottom of the standings, where relegation-threatened Gioiella Prisma Taranto and Siena will face each other on Saturday, at 18:00 local time (17:00 UTC).
Tied with 14 points (Siena rank 11th because they have five wins to Taranto’s four), both teams are desperate to change their situation in the standings and avoid finishing in 12th place, which would result in them competing in the country’s second division in 2023-2024.
A victory in this weekend’s match would prove very important to either team as it would not only allow them to create a three-point separation from their opponents, but could also help them to overtake tenth-placed Pallavolo Padova, who currently have 16 points.
Four other matches will take place on Sunday, with the earliest of them being the duel between league leaders Sir Safety Susa Perugia and ninth-placed Top Volley Cisterna, at 15:30 local time (14:30 UTC).
At 18:00 local time (17:00 UTC), there will be two encounters – Vero Volley Monza vs. Padova and WithU Verona vs. Valsa Group Modena. The last match of the weekend will begin at 20:30 local time (19:30 UTC) and will reunite Allianz Milano and Trentino.
