Itas Trentino Trento against Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and Sir Susa Vim Perugia against Cucine Lube Civitanova emerged as the semifinal match-ups in the Italian men’s SuperLega Credem Banca playoffs. Trentino and Lube achieved four-set victories over their opponents – Cisterna Volley and Allianz Milan, respectively – in the fourth leg of their quarterfinals on Wednesday evening to close their best-of-five series and progress to the last four in the race for the national title.
Superlega 2024/25
Lube and Trentino progress to SuperLega semifinals
Recap of Italian SuperLega 4th-leg quarterfinal matches
Published 06:00, 27 Mar 2025
Lube’s setter Mattia Boninfante in action
- Watch the SuperLega on VBTV.
Cucine Lube Civitanova produced a 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-20, 25-22) away victory over Allianz Milan and took the quarterfinal playoff by 3-1 in wins to advance to a semifinal battle with defending champions Sir. Lube’s setter Mattia Boninfante was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match. With Boninfante’s masterful distribution, Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija delivered a match-high 18 points, including two aces, while outside hitters Mattia Bottolo and Bulgaria’s Aleksandar Nikolov scored 15 and 14 points, respectively. Overall, Lube prevailed mostly in blocking with Bottolo putting up four of the team’s 13 kill blocks. Allianz, on the other hand, relied heavily on their serving. Setter Paolo Porro fired five of the home side’s 11 aces. Japanese outside hitter Tatsunori Otsuka led the team’s scorers with 16 points (one ace). Belgian opposite Ferre Reggers added another 15 (three aces), while Canadian middle blocker Jordan Schnitzer also reached the double digits with 10 points (one ace).
“We are very happy! We knew that Milan would be a very tough opponent and we were very good at believing in it even after losing the first match of the series, at home,” said MVP Boninfante after the match. “Now a very difficult and prominent challenge awaits us with Perugia, a historic match given that in recent years it has awarded many trophies on the national level. Before getting to work to prepare for it to the best of our ability, however, we will enjoy a few days of rest.”
Led by French opposite Theo Faure, who was the best scorer of the match with 20 points, Cisterna Volley tried to put their visitors Itas Trentino Trento under pressure by winning the first set. The regular season winners and reigning European champions, however, allowed no more surprises in the next three sets and turned the game around to a 3-1 (17-25, 25-20, 25-14, 27-25) victory, capitalizing mostly on the more unforced errors the opponents made, also closing this quarterfinal playoff at 3-1 in wins. Luxembourgish opposite Kamil Rychlicki fired three aces and raised one kill block to finish with 16 points, matching MVP Alessandro Michieletto. The outside hitter’s 16-point tally featured two blocks and an ace. His cross-court teammate Daniele Lavia added 13 points. On the other side of the net, Spanish outside Jordi Ramon produced four aces towards a 12-point total, while Turkish outside Efe Bayram finished with 11 points, including two blocks.
“We struggled a lot this evening too, because coming to Cisterna di Latina and winning is always very difficult for us,” MVP Michieletto commented. “All the more reason we are very happy with the victory and the qualification. In the first and the last sets, we really had to suffer, but in the end we brought home the victory that allows us to have the right amount of time to prepare well for the semifinal series with Piacenza.”
The four quarterfinal losers – Rana Verona, Allianz Milan, Valsa Group Modena and Cisterna Volley – will continue their season in the playoffs for the fifth place, joining Sonepar Padova Padua and Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina.
The best-of-five semifinal playoffs are set to start on April 6 with Trentino and Sir hosting Gas Sales and Lube, respectively, in the first leg.
SuperLega Credem Banca 2024-2025 semifinal playoffs, 1st leg:
Apr 06, 18:00 local (16:00 UTC): Sir Susa Vim Perugia v Cucine Lube Civitanova
Apr 06, 18:00 local (16:00 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza
