Reggers and Ishikawa lift Milano to level the series with Perugia

Allianz Milano secured a critical road win on Wednesday in the semifinals of the 2023-2024 SuperLega Credem Banca and leveled their best-of-five series with world champion Sir Susa Vim Perugia as the teams split victories in the first two legs of the duel.

The other semifinal series is now leaning more towards Itas Trentino’s way as the defending champions defeated Mint Vero Volley Monza for the second time in four days and need just another victory in the final three matches to return to the Italian League Finals.

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

Back at home on Wednesday after a 3-1 road loss to Perugia on Sunday, Milano had their backs against the wall and responded well, pulling off a dramatic 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 21-25, 27-25, 20-18) that put them on an equal footing in the series.

Ferre Reggers and Yuki Ishikawa were instrumental in Milano’s triumph as the two combined for 50 points in the match – the Belgian opposite produced a match-high 31 (26 kills, three blocks, two aces), while the Japanese national team captain added 19 (18 kills, one block).

“It’s never going to be easy against Perugia,” Reggers remarked. “But we played with a lot of passion and the fans created a great atmosphere. I’m happy because we showed again that we can do anything. We can be down 2-0 but we’ll fight until the end and it’s never over before the final point.”

Perugia got 25 points (20 kills, three blocks, two aces) from Polish outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk, 21 (18 kills, three aces) from Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara and 19 (16 kills, three aces) from Ukrainian outside hitter Oleh Plotnytskyi.

Trentino closer to the Finals

In Monza, Trentino ignored their opponents’ homecourt advantage to secure a 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-18, 25-18) road win and get the second of three victories they need to triumph in the series.

As was the case in the first match of the series, on Sunday, the defending champions saw most of their production come from outside hitters Alessandro Michieletto (17) and Daniele Lavia (12) and opposite Kamil Rychlicki (16).

“We displayed a lot of character today,” said middle blocker Marko Podrascanin. “I don’t think we played our best game, but we still got the win in a very difficult stadium. Monza didn’t give us anything and the second set showed it. We have a good 2-0 lead in the series, but it’s not over yet and we’ll need to do more if we want to bring the series to an end in the next match.”

Canadian outside hitter Eric Loeppky was Monza’s top scorer with 19 points (17 kills, one block, one ace), followed by his compatriot Arthur Szwarc and Japanese Ran Takahashi, with 13 points each.

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024: full schedule and results

The third match of both series will be held on Sunday, with Trentino returning home to face Monza at 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT) and Perugia hosting Milano one hour later.

Piacenza and Verona start the playoffs for 5^th place well

The playoffs to determine the final positions from 5^th to tenth started on Wednesday and Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and Rana Verona started ahead – Piacenza downed Cisterna Volley 3-1 (25-21, 18-25, 25-15, 25-20) on the road while Verona topped Pallavolo Padova 3-1 (25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 25-21) at home.

Another match will be played on Thursday, with Cucine Lube Civitanova welcoming Valsa Group Modena at 20:30 local time (19:30 GMT).

Quick links:
Lega Pallavolo SuperLega Credem Banca
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter