Trento, 22 February 2019

On Saturday the anticipated match of 22th turn of Superlega at BLM Group Arena

On this weekend it is the time for the 21th turn of regular season SuperLega Credem Banca 2018/19, the ninth of the return round. Itas Trentino will be the protagonist of the anticipated tv match, which will be competed vs Kioene Padova on Saturday 23th February. The match will start at 18: live on RAI Sport + Radio Dolomiti.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After the 3-2 on Monday night in Verona, Itas is going to face another team from Veneto and aims at repossessing its championship victory, defending its second ranking position so that then they can be focused on the going match of the 2019 CEV Cup semifinal (planned for Tuesday night in Athens).
“Since our next appointments are so close, we haven’t had no option but to prepare both of them in these last training days – explains coach Angelo Lorenzetti - . Yet we have been preparing properly, being aware of the kind of moment we are living and of the high skills of our future opponents. Padova indeed has really improved during this championship, especially in the side-out phase, even if such a great player as Randazzo left the team. Given this, there are important points at stake, which are not easy to gain”.
Itas Trentino coach can count on the whole roster of 13 players, who are going on training today’s afternoon and on Saturday morning at BLM Group Arena.
800TH OFFICIAL MATCH OF TRENTINO VOLLEY Regardless of the result, it will be a very important appointment for Trentino Volley; right on this occasion it will be the 800th official match for our players (the team has been World Champions already 5 times). They have won 577 out of the already played 799 matches, of which 290 here in Trento at BLM Group Arena and 267 played away. The most achieved result was the success 3-0, obtained on 294 occasions, whereas the most frequent defeat was with the score 1-3 (97 times). On the whole Trentino Volley has participated in 477 regular season matches, 111 Play Off championship matches, 12 Supercoppa Italiana appointments, 39 Coppa Italia whereas on 158 occasions they have been present in international competitions. The most present players have been Birarelli and Colaci (who have played 43% of matches 345 out of 799), whereas Kaziysky has scored the most points (4945 points in 334 participations) and he is the one who has been captain most of the times (204). The most frequent opponent team is Modena (71 previous matches); it’s curious how Itas Trentino is going to play this match right vs the Club faced for the very first time in Trento: on the 22th October 2000, match vs Padova, that at the time was coached by Angelo Lorenzetti (victory 3-2).
THE OPPONENTS Kioene Padova arrives at BLM Group Arena in the best moment of its regular season. During the last six SuperLega matches Padova has constantly gained points, it has the seventh ranking position with 32 points, with 5 points away from Verona, two more than Monza, but most importantly seven advantage points on the ninth position of Ravenna. Five days away from the end of the regular season, the qualification to Play Off Scudetto is close and it seems to confirm a pathway where Valerio Baldovin’s team was really hard to beat even for the best teams (they won vs Perugia gaining 3 points and vs Modena gaining one point). Until the 3-1 vs Sir Safey Conad, also the spiker Randazzo belonged to the team, then he was forced to leave the team due to an injury tot he right knee; yet Kioene has found the right players, recruiting the Tours‘ player Barnes, from Canada. Among the assets of Padova we find the block (fourth tournament considering the number of points) and the performances of Torres (ninth best player of the championship), of the libero Danani (first average catcher) and of Volpato, who is among the best SuperLega centrals thanks to his brilliant performances in attack and with the block.
PREVIOUS MATCHES Trentino Volley and Pallavolo Padova have already faced each other several times since 2000. The 29 matches that they have already played in regular season show the supremacy of Trentino Volley, which has won 25 matches; Trento is also really proud of its 19 consecutive victories which have been going on for 14 years. The last Padova’s victory dates back to 13th February 2005, when Pallavolo Padova won 3-2 at Pala San Lazzaro (today Kioene Arena). During the previous matches played in Trento, Padova won only once: on 7th November 2004, 1-3 with the ex Meszaros mvp. The last direct match between the two teams was played on 24th November 2018: 3-1 for Itas Trentino during the going match (17 points scored by Kovacevic, best player on court).
REFEREES The match will be directed by Giorgio Gnani (from Ferrara, in Serie A since 1997) and Mauro Goitre (from Torino, in the main league since 2008 and international since 2016); they directed together the match Civitanova-Trento 3-2 on 4th November. That match represents the only seasonal one directed by Gnani with Trentino Volley (the 14th match in SuperLega Credem Banca 2018/19), while Goitre (his 11th match in the ongoing regular season) had also directed Monza-Trento 3-2 on 23rd Dicember.
TV, RADIO AND THE INTERNET The match will be an international event and it will be transmitted live on television, on the radio and on the Internet. It will be transmitted on RAI Sport + (digital terrestrial - channel 57 in HD, 58 in sd ; sky - channel 227 with comments by Marco Fantasia and Claudio Galli). It will be possible to find pictures of the match on the Internet, in steaming video-audio here: www.raisport.rai.it.
As always, the commentary of the match will be transmitted on Radio Dolomiti, radio partner of Trentino Volley, starting from 17.55. The frequencies you need to listen to the regional network are available on www.radiodolomiti.com.
The complete match will be transmitted on television on Monday 25th February at 21.50, on RTTR - channel partner of Trentino Volley.
On the Internet, the minute-to-minute updates will be available on the website of Lega Pallavolo serie A (www.legavolley.it)  and on www.trentinovolley.it; Also the social networks of Trentino Volley will transmit the news and the most important updates  (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS AND MERCHANDISING It is possible to buy the tickets anytime on the Internet on  www.trentinovolley.it/ticketonline or on Saturday at BLM Group Arena starting from 17.
Inside the Arena, near the north bleachers, the fans can buy souvenirs and official articles of Trentino Volley.
“POLI DAY” Tomorrow it will be the “Poli Day” at BLM Group Arena; in order to celebrate with the fans the long-serving partnership, Gruppo Poli (which has been present and printed on the libero’s t-shirt for five seasons) will be there at BLM Group Arena to support the team.
Before the beginning of the match, the fans could taste some food provided by Poli at the stand near the Curva Gislimberti. The award for the best player will be branded Poli: a basket full of delicious products Via Verde Bio Primia. The prize will be given by Marcello Poli - CEO of Gruppo Poli- who will be as always on the bleachers, this time also with the directors of the stores.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office