Simon Van de Voorde and Pieter Verhees, belgian clash in the centre of the net
ph. Trabalza
Trento, 4th March 2017
It’s finally time for match 1 of 2017 UnipolSai Play Off Scudetto quarter finals. In the first round of the rank, Diatec Trentino will face Gi Group Monza in the first of three matches valid for a pass for the semifinals. The challenge will start tomorrow night, Sunday March 5th, at 6 pm with live radio streaming on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on Lega Volley Channel, at www.sportube.tv.
Here Diatec Trentino After achieving a surprising second position in the regular season rank, Trentino Volley continues on the hunt for the fifth national championship in the Play Offs; the first opponent will be the last team faced during regular season. Despite being far away in the rank (a 28 points gap at the end of regular season), Angelo Lorenzetti demands maximum care and attention from his players, not only in this match, but during the whole play off period.
“The Scudetto Play Off marks a new starting point - said coach Lorenzetti- The upcoming matches are different from the regular season: we won’t be playing for points, but to put our hands on the pass for the next round. We are very motivated but not taking anything for granted; it’s going to be tough for everyone, not only for us, and we need to find the right spirit. Challenging Monza is not easy at all, having played against them last Sunday won’t be much of an advantage. They probably will make us sweat and grind from match 1 until the end, as they already know our game attitude.”
The debut in the 2017 Play Off Scudetto will allow coach Lorenzetti to count on every player, as they’re all available. The upcoming quarter finals will be the eighth cap for libero Massimo Colaci (43 matches in total), while libero Matteo Chiappa is at his first post-season experience. On Sunday night Trentino Volley will play its 701st official match, trying to achieve victory number 492, 253rd at PalaTrento.
The history of Trentino Volley in the Playoff Scudetto this will be the fifteenth participation for Trentino Volley at Play Off Scudetto in seventeen seasons of activity. In the fourteen previous occasions, Diatec Trentino got the qualification to the semi-finals nine times: season 2005/06 defeating Modena 2-1, season 2007/08 winning against Modena 2-0, season 2008/09 winning against Vibo in three matches (3-0), season 2009/10 winning against Verona in three matches (3-0), season 2010/11 winning against San Giustino (3-0), season 2011/12 winning the small pool against Roma and San Giustino (double 3-0) in the weekend of Easter, season 2012/13 winning against Vibo Valentia in two matches, season 2014/15 winning against Molfetta 2-0 and in the last season always winning against Molfetta in five matches (3-2). In this edition the Club of via Trener can try to get the qualification to the eighth final in the last ten participations; on Treviso, between 2001 and 2007, has been able to do better getting the qualification to eight finals, but consecutively.
Apart from the unfortunate experience of season 2013/14 (two matches and two defeats), in every Play-off which took part at Trentino Volley has always won one match at least; in eleven on thirteen cases Diatec Trentino won in the first played match: it happened in Perugia for 3-2 in 2004, in Piacenza for 3-1 in 2005, in Cuneo for 3-2 in 2007, at PalaTrento versus Modena for 3-0 in 2008, again at home versus Vibo for 3-2 in 2009, versus Verona for 3-0 in 2010, versus San Giustino in 2011, in 2012 for 3-0 at PalaTrento, in Vibo Valentia in 2013, at PalaTrento versus Molfetta in 2015 and 2016 (double 3-0).
The opponents On Sunday at PalaTrento Gi Group Monza will live an important experience playing its first championship Play-off match of its history. In its third season in Superlega the team from Brianza has achieved the qualification o the quarter-finals as seventh in ranking, thanks to the 34 gained points, coming from an overall of eleven victories and fifteen defeats. The team coached by Falasca proved its competitiveness during this regular season, gaining victories such as the one versus Modena and getting one point versus Diatec Trentino at PalaTrento (nobody else has been able to do this). The integration of the former Vissotto and the confirmation of Verhees and Fromm further helped Monza in conquering its ranking position, even gaining the qualification to the Play-off two matches before the end of the season.
In the return round of regular season Monza has only achieved two away victories (in Busto Arsizio and in Piacenza), but the one gained versus Lpr is very recent and is dated back to February 22nd (3-2 at PalaBanca).
Previous matches Trentino Volley and Vero Volley Monza will play against each other for the eighth time in their history; half of the previous matches have been played during last season, taking into account that the one scheduled for Sunday will be the fourth match in 2016/17.
The sheets is good only for Diatec Trentini, which won all previous matches and let only four sets to the opponent; two of them were won at PalaTrento in the match of the going round played on November 27th. The two other sets were won in the matches lost for 3-1 in Brianza on October 28th 2015 and at PalaTrento on December 21st 2015. All other matches ended 3-0, such as the one of seven days ago and the one of the quarter-finals of Coppa Italia 2017, played at PalaTrento on January 11th.
The series The quarter-finals will be played with the best-of-three formula; will pass the round the team which will win two games out of three. After match 1 of tomorrow, both the teams will face each other in Monza for match 2 already on March 8th at 8.30 p.m, while the eventual match 3 (if needed) would be scheduled for Sunday March 12th (6 p.m) again in Trentino.
The team that will pass the round will face the winner between Perugia-Piacenza, match scheduled for this evening in Umbria. The two other quarter-finals will be Civitanova-Vibo Valentia and Modena-Verona.
The referees The referees of the match will be the expert couple from Umbria Fabrizio Saltalippi and Simone Santi. Saltalippi - from Perugia, in Serie A since 1995 and on international field since 2001 – will direct a match for the 17th time in this season of SuperLega; in this season he has already directed Ravenna-Trento 1-3 on 1st November and the Final of Coppa Italia Civitanova-Trento 3-1 on 29th January in Bologna. Santi – from Città di Castello, in Serie A since 1994 and international Fivb referee since 2011 – is at his 18th seasonal match and has already directed a match of Diatec Trentino on the occasion of the victories for 3-0 against Milano (at PalaTrento) and against Latina and of the defeat for 0-3 against Civitanova on 12th February.
Radio, TV and Internet The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti (Trentino Volley partner network). The links with the match at PalaTrento will be made within “Campioni di Sport”, the sport program of via Missioni Africane. The frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on the home page www.trentinovolley.it, while on the site www.radiodolomiti.com will be also possible to listen to the live streaming of the report of the match.
It is also scheduled a live video-report of the match on the web space “Lega Volley Channel”, at www.sportube.tv/volley (service for a fee).
The recorded broadcast of the match will be entirely transmitted on Monday 6th March at 9.30 p.m. by RTTR, partner TV of the Club of via Trener.
On the internet, a point-to-point update will be available on the web site of Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and of Trentino Volley (www.trentinovolley.it) and will always be active on the yellow-blue Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
Tickets and merchandising The ticket-presale for the match against Monza is available until this evening at 7 p.m. at the offices of Promoevent, in via Suffragio 10 in Trento, and at any time at http://www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/trento-vs-civitanova/90479. The coupons will be available also on Sunday at PalaTrento from 5 p.m., when the entrance will be opened. The ticket boxes will remain open until the end of the second set. From that moment it will no longer be possible to enter PalaTrento to watch the rest of the match.
Behind the long stand north side, the supporters will find the renewed yellow-blue merchandising point at their disposal; a wide range of items Trentino Volley for sale.
On this occasion at PalaTrento there will be the “Mez&Gasser Day”. After the welcomed initiative of last season during the home match won against Latina, Mez&Gasser – which has been official sponsor of the Club of via Trener for three years – and Diatec Trentino have planed a series of special initiatives in order to make the occasion more enjoyable: for example, the invitation of the students of five middle schools from Valsugana. The public on the stands will find the PalaTrento, the “Agorà” hospitality room, the official match program and the prize for the mvp of the match will have the brand and the colours of Menz&Gasser,
Play Off Scudetto UnipolSai 2017, quarter of final schedule
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