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Just before Gialloblù’s 23rd season something huge happened: on June 6, 2022, Trentino Volleyball announced the opening of its female sector, with the acquisition of the A2 Series rights from the local club Trentino Rosa. For the first time in history there are two Itas Trentino-branded teams at the starting line; something similar also happened in the 2010/11 season, when a yellow-blue lineup disputed - after signing a deal with the Delta Informatica Trento - the women's B1 Series, winning it. The male team has now even greater ambitions compared to the past, boasting in its roster the newly crowned World Champions Lavia and Michieletto, who just won the title with the Italian national team. In its second year of the new cycle, the management props up the roster by inserting Czechia’s Dzavoronok as first replacement for the high-ball attackers and by bringing back Nelli (back from several experiences, including international ones, after growing up under Gialloblù’s wing) to the roster at Angelo Lorenzetti's disposal. There is also one new entry: from Taranto comes the super promising libero Laurenzano (19 years old), who takes Zenger's place and immediately makes himself appreciated, living up to his potential at the end of the year. The only change is in the module, with the coach from the Marche deciding as early as the third day to use Kaziyski as pure opposite hitter, bringing Lavia back to the role of real hammer. This choice will pay off in the long run also thanks to the great season experienced in area 1 and area 2 by the captain (who will end up as Best Scorer and MVP). Season’s start is in line with expectations and will see the team at the top of the ranking of a very balanced tournament (aside from the match with Perugia, the team will win the regular season without losing a single game), that forced a few more setbacks than expected. Trento still remains at the top, but at the end of October in Cagliari it had to surrender the Super Cup, leaving it to the Umbrian team that eliminates it in the semifinals before beating Civitanova in the finals. In November, Trento also began its twelfth participation in the Champions League, winning the first two games, and a month later the team flew to Brazil to play in the FIVB Club World Championship, thanks to the European runner-up spot it had gotten in the previous season. The adventure in Betim ended with a second place; in its tenth experience at the biggest stage Trento gained access to the Final, eliminating the defending champions and hosts Sada with a 3-0 domination, before conceding defeat in the last act once again in Perugia, in a match that saw Trento winning in its first half.
The first world championship silver medal could have had a negative effect on Kaziyski and his team-mates, but instead they returned to Trento and, in December and January, were once again protagonists in Europe and Italy, reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League without a defeat and qualifying for the semi-finals of the Italian Cup by knocking out Modena in the quarter-finals. The decisive phase of these two events, however, brought both light and shadow: at the end of February, Itas Trentino defeated Milan 3-2 in Rome and earned the right to play in the Italian Cup final for the second time in a row, only to lose out to Piacenza. Their continental adventure came to an end in the quarter-finals, where Kedzierzyn-Kozle (the eventual winners of the Cup) got the better of them in the golden set. Lorenzetti and his men then concentrated all their energies on the final rush of the championship, reaching the play-offs as the number two seed thanks to finishing second in the regular season. From the outset, it was clear that the competition was going to be full of surprises, twists and turns and hard-fought series, with Trento overcoming Monza in the quarter-final to knock out Perugia and Modena in the semi-final. In the semi-finals, Itas Trentino beat Piacenza in the fifth game (after leading 2-0 and then being caught). In the final, they met Civitanova, reigning champions for four seasons, as in the last and previous final in their history (2017).
This time, however, the result was different: the yellow-blue had to do without Lisinac (out immediately with a back problem, but well replaced by D'Heer), but they made the on-field factor count: they won all their matches in the BLM Group Arena and also played in the matches played in the Marche. The Scudetto was therefore decided in the play-offs, which Trento played at home and won 3-0 in front of their home fans on 17 May. Michieletto, Lavia, Sbertoli, Podrascanin and the legendary Kaziyski (in his last match in yellow and blue) led the team towards their fifth Scudetto, which became a reality when the setter scored the final point with a touch of his second. Trentino Volleyball are Italian champions for the fifth time and the team is celebrating the historic result together with the women's team, who just a week earlier had won promotion to Serie A2 thanks to their victory in the playoffs. Captain Silvia Fondriest (from Rovereto, Trentino) lifted the trophy at the PalaGeorge in Montichiari, sparking off the celebrations in the pink section of the Via Trener club, which had secured promotion to the top flight at the end of a championship that saw them win the A round of the regular season, losing only a handful of games before beating Brescia in the final, thanks also to the amazing performance of Francesca Michieletto (sister of Alessandro and MVP of the championship). In the following season, Trentino Volleyball will have two teams representing it in the most important national tournaments, establishing itself more and more as a reference point for the whole movement.
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