With Ben Tara on fire, Sir edge ahead to within a win from gold

Sir Susa Vim Perugia are now just one win away from the second SuperLega Credem Banca title in the club’s history. On Thursday evening, the reigning club world champions produced a four-set home victory over Mint Vero Volley Monza in the third match of the best-of-five final playoff and edged ahead again, now leading the series by 2-1 in wins with an opportunity to triumph as Italian champions as soon as this Sunday, after the fourth match to be played in Monza.

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Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara earned the MVP award after contributing a match-high 20 points towards the Block Devils’ 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 24-26, 25-19) victory, including the match winner. He spiked at a 52% success rate and raised four kill blocks during the game. Sir’s two outside hitters, Poland’s Kamil Semeniuk and Ukraine’s Oleh Plotnytskyi, also reached the double digits wit 14 and 12 points, respectively, while Brazilian middle blocker Flavio Gualberto impressed with five kill blocks to finish with a total of eight points.

Canadian opposite Eric Loeppky led Vero Volley with 17 points. Japanese outside Ran Takahashi added another 14, while another Canadian, outside Stephen Maar, finished with 11.

“It was a beautiful match by the team,” said Sir’s Cuban-born Polish outside Wilfredo Leon, who came in as a substitution during sets three and four and fired two aces and four kills in attack at a 100% success rate. “I'm happy and proud of how we played today, especially in the first two sets. We wanted to show that we really wanted this victory. It was also great to play in front of five thousand people. Now we'll try to do better on Sunday in Monza.”

“Today Perugia's serve put us in a bit of difficulty, but in the third set we found our confidence on the court and won it,” Vero Volley’s middle blocker Gabriele Di Martino commented. “We can certainly do better. We know that a challenging game four awaits us, but we will have all the support of our fans.”

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 championship playoff – leg 4:
Apr 28, 18:00 local (16:00 UTC): Mint Vero Volley Monza v Sir Susa Vim Perugia

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 third place playoff – leg 4:
Apr 27, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Allianz Milan v Itas Trentino Trento

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 fifth place playoffs – final:
Apr 27, 18:00 local (16:00 UTC): Rana Verona v Cucine Lube Civitanova

SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024: full schedule and results

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