Piacenza and Perugia continue perfect after week two

Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and Sir Susa Vim Perugia are the only two teams to hold perfect records in the 2023-2024 SuperLega Credem Banca after the conclusion of the second week of the regular season, on Sunday.

Both teams got big road wins this weekend and share the top of the standings in the Italian League with six points and no sets dropped.

• Watch Italy’s SuperLega Credem Banca live and on demand on VBTV.

Piacenza went to Milan to face Allianz Milano and were better in the key moments of each set to walk away with a solid 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-23) victory.

“I’m very happy with the win, but also because I saw some good things from our team,” head coach Andrea Anastasi reflected. “We tried some new strategies in serve-receive and the answers were very good. Milano were missing an important player in (setter Paolo) Porro but we were very solid and did a good job of reacting in the first set, when our passing wasn’t great.”

A well-balanced offense was another key for Piacenza’s triumph as outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli (16 points) and Yoandy Leal (14) and opposite Yuri Romanò (14) all had major roles in the team’s offense – Lucarelli also took home the MVP award.

Milano, on the other hand, relied too much on Croatian opposite Petar Dirlic, who led all scorers with 23 points (21 kills, two blocks), but was the only player in his team to reach double digits in scoring.

Perugia dominate Monza

Not far from Milan, in Monza, Perugia won a close contest with Vero Volley Monza, taking the 3-0 (25-23, 32-30, 25-22) victory in tight sets to remain undefeated.

Polish outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk led Perugia’s offense with 14 points (13 kills, one ace), while Argentinean middle blocker Sebastian Solé added another ten (eight kills, one block, one ace). Monza has the two main scorers of the encounter in Canadian opposite Arthur Szwarc, with 15 points, and Japanese outside hitter Ran Takahashi, with 14.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult match and that’s exactly how it played out,” Semeniuk commented. “I’m glad we won it and it is also a very important result ahead of the Supercoppa.”

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024: full schedule and results

Cucine Lube Civitanova were also among the winners in the second week of action in the Italian League, recovering from an opening-match upset. Last year’s silver medalists went on the road and took care of business against Pallavolo Padova, benefiting from 14 points from Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija and 13 from Bulgarian outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov to win 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-21).

In the other match of the day, Farmitalia Catania made good use of their homecourt advantage against Cisterna Volley, securing a 3-1 (22-25, 26-24, 26-24, 25-14) win, which was their first-ever victory in the Italian elite.

Both matches held on Saturday went to distance, with Valsa Group Modena coming back to beat Rana Verona 3-2 (23-25, 17-25, 25-20, 25-23, 15-11) on the road and defending champions Itas Trentino struggling more than they probably expected to top Gioiella Prisma Taranto 3-2 (25-16, 23-25, 18-25, 26-24, 15-8) in front of their home fans.

The third round of the season will take place next week with one match set to be played on Saturday and another five on Sunday, including a highly-anticipated encounter between Lube and Perugia. Before that, Piacenza, Perugia, Lube and Trentino will compete in the Del Monte Supercoppa Italiana between Tuesday and Wednesday in Biella.

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