The last leg of the first half of Italy’s SuperLega Credem Banca regular season produced plenty of exciting results. Rana Verona battled back from two sets down to deliver a five-set upset of their hosts Cucine Lube Civitanova in the early match of the 11th leg on Tuesday and secure the last spot in the upcoming Coppa Italia quarterfinals. Allianz Milan did the same upon their visit at reigning club world champions Sir Susa Vim Perugia. Cisterna Volley handed Mint Vero Volley Monza a surprising defeat, while Gioiella Prisma Taranto finally achieved their first win of the season.
Superlega 2023
Verona take no chances, upset Lube in Civitanova on way to Coppa Italia
A recap of Italian SuperLega’s 11th-leg matches
Published 07:33, 27 Dec 2023
Dzavoronok against Lube’s three-man block (source: lubevolley.it)
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Rana Verona needed to come up with a win in Civitanova to put their placement among the top eight in the half-season standings out of danger. As his team was down two sets, Bulgarian head coach Radostin Stoytchev made the right changes to his line-up and, with 21-year-old outside hitter Francesco Sani and 22-year-old Malian opposite Noumory Keita on the court, achieved a 3-2 (22-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-23, 15-12) victory. Keita finished the match with 14 points and Sani added another 12. Middle blocker Lorenzo Cortesia raised as many as seven kill blocks to finish with 13 points, while Czech outside Donovan Dzavoronok fired five aces towards a 17-point tally to earn the MVP nomination. Lube’s 20-year-old Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov delivered a match-high 20 points, while Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija added another 17 for the home team.
Civitanova vs. Verona | Highlights | Superlega | 11a Giornata
Rana Verona improved to 14 points and a 5-6 win-loss record and finished the half-season in eighth place. Lube stayed in fifth place on 19 and 7-4.
Allianz Milan achieved a similar feat in Perugia and handed Sir Susa Vim their third defeat since the start of the season. With 39-year-old Bulgarian legend Matey Kaziyski on fire, the visitors came back from two sets down to celebrate a 3-2 (14-25, 20-25, 25-12, 25-22, 15-12) victory over their mighty hosts. Kaziyski was the best scorer of the match with 25 points, including six aces, for a well-deserved MVP award. All six of his aces were realized within a series of 11 serves in a row early into the third set.
Argentinean middle Agustin Loser put away five kill blocks to finish with 14 points. Japanese outside Yuki Ishikawa also scored 14 points towards Allianz’s win. Four players reached the double digits on Sir’s side: Cuban opposite Jesus Herrera with 20 points (including five blocks), Ukrainian outside Oleh Plotnytskyi with 15, Brazilian middle Flavio Gualberto with 10 and Polish outside Kamil Semeniuk with 10.
This success helped the squad from Milan overtake Valsa Group Modena in sixth place on 18 points and 6-5, while the club world champs from Perugia stayed in second place on 25 and 8-3.
“No doubt my serving series in the third set gave the team a hand in a difficult moment,” Kaziyski said after the match. “Having such a large lead helps. Maybe we started a little nervous. Then the game was in balance and then we were back to playing our game. I hope to see a large audience on Saturday at the Forum Assago against Modena.”
Defending Italian champions and table leaders Itas Trentino Trento took advantage of Sir’s loss to widen the gap at the top of the standings with a 3-0 (25-20, 34-32, 25-22) shutout of their hosts Pallavolo Padova Padua. While Italian outside Alessandro Michieletto led the winners with 14 points, Padova’s Belgian outside Mathijs Desmet produced the match high of 20 points. Trentino are now on 10-1 and 28 points, three clear of Sir, while Padova are ninth on 10 and 4-7.
Third-placed Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza also took advantage of Sir’s setback to narrow the distance to them in the table. A 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-21) away victory over Valsa Group upped their record to 24 and 7-4, while the club from Modena dropped to seventh place on 17 and 7-4. Gas Sales’ Brazilian star Ricardo Lucarelli led the way with 13 points.
10th-placed Cisterna Volley surprised fourth-placed Mint Vero Volley Monza with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22) victory at home to catch up with Padova on 10 points each, but stayed behind on number of wins (3-8). Vero Volley are still fourth on 20 points and 7-4. French opposite Theo Faure was the top scorer of the match with 24 points for Cisterna.
In a bottom-of-the-table clash, 11th-placed Gioiella Prisma Taranto managed their first win of the season, a 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 17-25, 25-23) home victory over 12th-placed rookies Farmitalia Catania. Filippo Lanza led Gioiella with 16 points, while Austrian opposite Paul Buchegger topped the charts with 21 points for Farmitalia. The team from Taranto improved to 9 points and 1-10, while the squad from Catania are stuck at the bottom with 4 and 1-10.
The second half of the regular season will start without further ado with the first match of the 12th leg on Friday, December 29, and another five games on Saturday.
SuperLega Credem Banca 2023-2024 12th leg:
Dec 29, 19:00 local (18:00 UTC): Rana Verona v Gioiella Prisma Taranto
Dec 30, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Farmitalia Catania v Sir Susa Vim Perugia
Dec 30, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v Cisterna Volley
Dec 30, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Pallavolo Padova Padua v Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza
Dec 30, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Mint Vero Volley Monza v Cucine Lube Civitanova
Dec 30, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Allianz Milan v Valsa Group Modena
