The Serbian spiker of Diatec Trentino Uros Kovacevic overcomes the three-block of Gi Group Monza
ph. Trabalza
Trento, December 23rd 2017
As always, SuperLega is not going to stop during the Christmas festivities, and the last match of the first round of regular season 2017/2018 (the 13th) will be played on Boxing day. Diatec Trentino will play in their home front of their public on December 26th , against Gi Group Monza. The match is starting at 6:15pm and will be transmitted live on RAI Sport + HD and on Radio Dolomiti.
HERE DIATEC TRENTINO After three weeks of absence in their field, time when they have been playing four away matches (hosted by Maaseik, Vibo Valentia, Frosinone and Kedzierzyn-Kozle), now the yellow-blues will be back in PalaTrento for the after-Christmas-match, searching for a victory that would allow them a good end of this rising phase of regular season. With a score of 19 points and currently ranking at 8th position (but very close to 5th position), there's a lot at stake in this match, even because of the fact that during that day also other hard matches fort eh team at the first positions, including Piacenza-Verona, Padova-Modena and Ravenna-Perugia, will be played.
“It is a very important match, it will give us an opportunity to adjust our ranking- said the coach Angelo Lorenzetti-; it will be essential for us to have the right approach and to win the first set. I often point this out, but I do it because usually the team who plays best in the first part of the match, win in the end, and also because we never made it in PalaTrento. So we have to be good and determined since the beginning and be able to fight even in the case of protraction till the advantages. I'm underling this since I know that Monza won't make it easy for us; our opponents have run a path that is similar to ours, having difficulties at the beginning also because of the many changes in the group of six regulars. But then they went on very well; lately Gi Group has improved a lot, also thanks to Plotnytskyi, who play very well during the side-out phase”.
Diatec Trentino will be completing its training for that match in the next two days, with a mixed session (weights and ball) on Saturday December 24th and and a ball session on Christmas evening; this training will be important for helping the technician decide which starting six to chose. All the thirteen players will be available.
IT'S GOING TO BE THE NINTH MATCH OF THE YELLOW-BLUES HISTORY ON BOXING DAY Playing on the day right after Christams has become a very pleasent tradition for Trentino Volley, that in the last 17 years have already played 8 times on Boxing day; the balance sheet is very positive since the team won 6 times: 3-1 against Verona in 2005, 3-0 against Treviso in 2010, 3-1 against Belluno in 2011, 3-1 against Perugia in 2012, 3-0 against Monza in 2014 and 3-1 against Padova in 2016. The only two defeats happened in two away fields: 1-3 in Modena in 2006 and in Treviso in 2007. PalaTrento has been a positive setting during the four previous matches, that always offered a great setting for the public: more than 4.000 attendances in the match against Verona (2005) and Treviso (2010), 3.700 in the one against Perugia (2012), 3.991 in the one against Padova (2016). This time Trentino Volley will be playing the 733rd official match ever and will try and reach the 307th victory in regular season and the 509th one ever.
THE OPPONENTS The Gi Group Monza is getting in PalaTrento for the second time this season, with the aim of breaking the negative tradition of their matches against Trentino Volley (Trento won all the ten previous matches), so closing well the first round of SuperLega that hasn't been good for them until now. But the success obtained in the main field against Ravenna last Sunday and the previous one obtained two weeks earlier against Latina, showed how the team has been improving as far as it concerns the continuity of the game and the confidence they have in their means. Both factors have been positively influenced by the arrival in place 4 of the young player from Ukraine Plotnytsky, best player in the match against Bunge (22 points, with 4 blocks and 67% in the net) who created more opportunities when the ball was high, in a season in which the Spanish technician often rotated his players (Finger and Hirsch as opposite hitters; Langlois, Botto and Dzavoranok as spikers). All the 12 points they currently have have been obtained in their home field, since Monza in this first round have been defeated at maximum in 4 out of the 6 away matches (Busto Arsizio, Modena, Perugia, Padova, Verona and Piacenza).
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES All the matches between Trentino Volley and Vero Volley Monza (played in the last four years and a half) have been successful for the yellow-blues: all the ten official matches already played since the company from Brianza has risen in top series have consistently given the success to the team of Trentino, which among the walls of PalaTrento has conceded to the opponents three sets in five matches (a partial on December 20 2015 and the other two on November 27 2016). The most recent match is already related to the current season; on November 18th, Diatec Trentino won 3-0 in the walls of its home, with 25-23, 25-20, 25-18 and Kovacevic mvp (14 personal points) in the single match of the Coppa Italia quarter-finals. Trento-Monza on St. Stephen's Day is not an absolute novelty: the two teams met on that same date in 2014 in Brianza, with the victory in three sets of the guests.
THE REFEREES The meeting will be refereed by Daniele Rapisarda (from Udine, in the major Leagues since 2002 and international since 2011) and Andrea Puecher (from Padova, referring since 2003 and international since 2013). The two whistles are at the second joint match in SuperLega UnipolSai 2017/18, the ninth for Rapisarda (the last one with Trento on November 1st, defeat at Civitanova Marche for 0-3), the eighth for Puecher, who in this season has already refereed Diatec Trentino-Revivre Milano 2-3 on October 15th and Sir Safety-Diatec Trentino 3-0 on November 15 (last yellow-bue defeat in the league). Together they had already refereed Trentino Volley during a competition on Boxing Day: winning away match in Belluno for 3-1 in 2011.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET Trento-Monza will be a global media event, broadcast live on TV, radio and internet. In fact, it will be broadcast by RAI Sport + HD, a channel on both the digitale terrestre platform (channel 57 in HD, 58 in sd) and on the Sky on channel 227, with the commentary directed by Marco Fantasia and Claudio Galli; the images will also be posted on the internet in streaming video-audio at www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html and will count on an intercontinental visibility (twenty-six connected nations) thanks to the lives scheduled by Band Sports , Sportsklub, Sportsklub Poland, Dowaly / Kuwait Sports, Sportmax Caraibi, Telesports, Ote, Saran and Img. As always, the live and full chronicle of Radio Dolomiti - radio partner of Trentino Volley - starts at 18.10 with Stefano Piffer and Andrea Cobbe. All frequencies are available on the home page of the Company's website, www.trentinovolley.it, while on www.radiodolomiti.com it will also be possible to listen to the streaming commentary by accessing the "On Air" section. On TV, the complete deferred match will be broadcast on Thursday, December 28th at 10:15 pm, on RTTR - TV partner of Trentino Volley. On the Internet, point-to-point updates will be updated by the Lega Volleyball Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it and will always be available on the social yellow-blues social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS, MERCHANDISING, "FORST DAY" AND COMETA ASMME The presale tickets for the match versus Monza are available through the usual channels: PromoEvent of via Suffragio 10 in Trento (open until Saturday December 24 at 19), the Italian circuit of VivaTicket and online, on http://www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/diatec-trentino-monza/107301. The tickets will also be available on Tuesday at the PalaTrento cashiers, from 5 pm, while at 5:15 pm the gates of the building will be opened. The cashiers will remain opened until the end of the second set, from which it will no longer be possible to access the PalaTrento to see the rest of the match.
Inside, behind the long north stand, the fans will find the yellow-blue merchandising point at their disposal, with a vast range of Trentino Volley articles. It will be time for "Forst Day"; Birra Forst - for years sponsor of the Trentino Volley shirt - and the yellow-blue Club itself will organize a series of initiatives to promote the important partnership. The public that will sit in the tribunes will find the PalaTrento and the official match program characterized by the colors and the logo of Forst and will also be able to buy inside the building the Forst beer at a discounted price, receiving at the entrance a coupon of the value of one euro. The prize that will be awarded to the best player of the match will be a two-liter bottle of Birra Forst Sixtus.
A stand will be reserved for "Cometa Asmme" (Association of Metabolic Hereditary Diseases), located next to the merchandising point, where the traditional Chocolate Stars will be sold to the public with a minimum tender of nine euros each. The funds raised will be used to finance research on individual diseases of this type and to help sick people and their families, who need significant financial support to face therapies or new types of examinations.
SuperLega UnipolSai 2017/18, standing and game day 13
Trentino Volley Srl
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