Trento, 03 March 2019

Revivre Axopower-Itas Trentino 1-3, the match report

Report of the match. In front of the sold out PalaYamamay (4300 fans) Itas Trentino started with Giannelli as setter, Vettori opposite spiker, Russell and Kovacevic as wing spikers, Codarin and Candellaro as middle-blockers and Grebennikov libero. Revivre Axopower had to deal with the injury of Piano and Sbertoli (knee injury) and lined up Izzo as setter, Abdel-Aziz opposite, Clevenot and Maar as spikers, Bossi and Kozamernik as middle-blockers, Pesaresi libero. The match starts with the two teams fighting on every ball, taking turns in the lead (3-5, 7-6) before a block by Bossi on Russell digs the first gap (10-12); Trento closes in with a block by Kovacevic (13-13) and leads with a block by Russell on Abdel-Aziz (17-16, time out Giani). Milano strikes back with the serve of Kozamernik and two slashes by Bossi and Maar (17-19, time out Lorenzetti) and then Abdel-Aziz scores the +4 (19-23); Lorenzetti calls another time out but the team doesn’t react and Milano wins the first set 19-25.
In the beginning of the second set Itas Trentino tries to react and Russell leads first on 5-3 then 8-5; after the time-out called by Giani, Milano ties already on 8-8 and takes over (8-9) with an ace by Clevenot. Trento catches up on 12-12 with a defense-point scored (!) scored by Grebennikov and Vettori scores an ace for the 14-12. Kovacevic defends the advantage and scores another ace (18-13); Yellow-blues are very efficient in the break point phase and speed up (23-17), closing the second set on 25-19 thanks to a mistake by Abdel-Aziz.
The game gets tough during the third set: Milano starts better (0-3, time-out by Lorenzetti) but Itas Trentino is ruthless at the block phase (Kovacevic and Codarin especially) and digs an important gap (11-8 and 14-9). Milano gets nervous, starts making many mistakes despite the substitutions (19-14) and loses contact; Trento keeps pushing hard in the sideout phase and closes the set with a serve by Kovacevic (2-1 set, 25-17 with an improving Vettori).
Milano’s start is again very convincing (0-3) but Giannelli and Candellaro aren’t easy to discourage and tie on 7-7; the two teams play head to head (10-10, 13-13) until Russell scores for the +2 lead on 18-16. Revivre shows some last effort equalizing on 18-18 but Kovacevic steps in (21-18) and with the help of Vettori closes the match on 25-23.

Trentino Volley Srl
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