Simon and Lucarelli strike back! Gas Sales tie series

Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza recovered from the upset they suffered at home in the first leg of Italy’s SuperLega Credem Banca best-of-five quarterfinals and tied their series against Allianz Milan after an away win on Sunday, powered by the brilliant contribution of Ricardo Lucarelli and Robertlandy Simon. In the other three quarterfinal playoffs, the leaders won again and doubled their leads.

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

Brazilian star outside Lucarelli was on fire, hammering out four aces and a kill block towards a 19-point match high in Gas Sales’ 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-14) victory at Allianz. He also registered a 56% success rate in attack and received the Most Valuable Player nomination. His Cuban teammate in the middle, Robertlandy Simon, raised an impressive nine kill blocks against the home team’s spikers, to which he added three aces and five kills in attack to finish with 17 points, followed by Cuban-born Brazilian outside Yoandy Leal with 13 points and opposite Yuri Romano with 12, including the winning point of the match. Japanese outside Yuki Ishikawa was Allianz’s most prolific player with 17 points, including three aces. Belgian opposite Ferre Reggers added another 13.

“I am very happy with how the team interpreted the game,” Gas Sales’ head coach Andrea Anastasi commented. “We did very well in blocking and in defence and if we want to harness Milan's game we must continue to do so. It was a difficult match in the first three sets. Then, in the fourth, we started very well and Milan were in difficulty. We haven't done anything yet. We're tied and everything is at stake. Lucarelli had a bad first set, but I know the player well and I knew that he would adapt to the opponents' game and grow. And it happened.”

“We knew it would be a very complicated match, but that’s always the case when you play against a team like Piacenza,” said Allianz’s coach Roberto Piazza. “In the second set, we were never really able to close the initial gap and shake it off. In short, we were never the masters of the court. They forced their serves with great results and had a considerable contribution with the zone-four attacks. Maybe today we weren't able to defend some balls that we would usually save and this was one of the differences.”

The match between regular season winners Itas Trentino Trento and eighth-placed Valsa Group Modena was the only one of the first quarterfinal leg that finished in three sets, but the second game of the series on Sunday afternoon in Modena was pushed to a five-set rollercoaster before the defending champions could extend their lead in this playoff to 2-0. In front of nearly four thousand on the stands, Modena managed to come back from a set down and edge ahead after three sets, but then the visitors managed another turnaround to celebrate a narrow 3-2 (25-22, 26-28, 15-25, 25-19, 15-13) victory.

Outside hitters Alessandro Michieletto and Daniele Lavia led the way with 20 and 16 points, respectively. The latter was named MVP of the match. Luxembourgish opposite Kamil Rychlicki added another 15 points for the winners, while Modena’s Belarusian opposite Uladzislau Davyskiba topped the charts with 21 points. His teammates – outside hitters Osmany Juantorena and Tommaso Rinaldi – produced 17 points each.

“Winning at the PalaPanini is always difficult but this afternoon we really never gave up,” said MVP Lavia. “We experienced a match with many ups and downs, but also characterized by great heart, which allowed us to bring home the victory.”

Mint Vero Volley Monza doubled their lead against Cucine Lube Civitanova with another three-set win, this time on home ground at the OpiquadArena. Vero Volley’s Japanese outside Ran Takahashi contributed 18 points to his team’s 3-1 (24-26, 25-18, 25-21, 25-20) victory, earned the MVP award and shared the top-scorer honours of the match with Lube’s Bulgarian counterpart Aleksandar Nikolov. Also reaching the double digits, Vero Volley’s Canadians Arthur Szwarc and Stephen Maar put away 14 and 12 points, respectively, while Lube’s Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija finished with 17 and Cuban outside Marlon Yant added another 12.

For the second game in a row, Rana Verona took the first set against Sir Susa Vim Perugia, but the reigning club world champions came back to win in four sets to get to within a win from a spot in the semifinals. Polish outside Kamil Semeniuk scored a match-high 20 points to claim the MVP nomination in his team’s 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-15) victory in Verona, supported by Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara with 17 points, Ukrainian outside Oleh Plotnytskyi with 12 and Brazilian middle Flavio Gualberto with 11. Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad with 12 points and outsides Noumory Keita of Mali and Rok Mozic of Slovenia with 11 each led Rana Verona’s scorers.

The third leg of the best-of-five quarterfinal playoffs will be played on Saturday and Sunday of this week.

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 quarterfinals – 3rd leg:
Mar 16, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza v Allianz Milan
Mar 17, 17:00 local (16:00 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v Valsa Group Modena
Mar 17, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Cucine Lube Civitanova v Mint Vero Volley Monza
Mar 17, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Sir Susa Vim Perugia v Rana Verona

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024: full schedule and results

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