Trento, 30 March 2019

The beginning of the Play Off of Scudetto 2019 at the BLM Group Arena, on Sunday

Play Off Scudetto Credem Banca 2019 are about to start. On the first round of this Italian championship 2018/19, Itas Trentino will face Kioene Padova in the series of matches to win best of three to get a pass for the semifinal. Match 1 for the quarterfinal will be played at the BLM Group Arena in Trento, on Sunday 31st March. Live on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on Lega Volley Channel at the link www.elevensports.it/superlega.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Itas Trentino concluded its international experience without losses (fifteen wins in fifteen matches during World Club Cup and CEV Cup) and is now ready to face this postseason phase with its second place in the rankings, this aspect alone allows it to play one home match more than the opponent during the quarterfinal and the eventual semifinal. The first hurdle is Kioene Padova, a team that was able to put the World Champions in a difficult spot during the regular season, even though Giannelli and his teammates managed to obtain two wins with three points each.
For this beginning of Play Off Scudetto Credem Banca 2019, the coach Angelo Lorenzetti can count again on the middle hitter Lisinac, already on the court during the tie break played in Istanbul, on Tuesday evening; the Serbian should only eventually take part in the match.
The ones that will start this weekend are the seventh Play Off of Vettori’s carrier, the player who taken part in more, whereas they will be the sixth for Simone Giannelli, the athlete with more presences (36) with Itas Trentino in this phase of the season. Two new players, Lisinac and Codarin.  On Sunday evening Trentino Volley will take part in the 809th official match of its history, the 112th of Play Off Scudetto, trying to win for the 567th time.
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S HISTORY IN PLAY OFF SCUDETTO With the one on Sunday at the BLM Group Arena, Trentino Volley will have taken part in seventeen Play Off Scudetto, in nineteen seasons it has played altogether. Trento has managed to pass the first round on eleven of the sixteen previous occasions; the eliminations that reached the quarterfinals are the one against Modena (2002/03 in five matches, 2013/14 in two matches), against Perugia (2003/04 in four matches, after having won the regular season), Piacenza (2004/05 in five matches) and against Cuneo (2006/07 in three matches). This time Trentino Volley is going to look for the eventual ninth final of the last twelve participations. Except for the unlucky 2013/14 season (two matches, two losses), Trentino Volley has always won at least a match, in every Play Off it has taken part in. Thirteen out of sixteen times in the first match played, also on the last occasion (3-2 in a home match against Verona during the 2018 edition).
THE OPPONENTS Last Sunday Kioene Padova has reached the end of the regular season with the best result since it had returned playing in A serie (ranked seventh with 40 points) and now is about to take part in its eighteenth Play Off Scudetto, to which it had not had access since the 2015/16 season. In the previous seventeen, it made it to the second round just once and reached the semifinals (1989/90). The team trained by Valerio Baldovin will return to Trento, once again without its spiker Randazzo, just a bit more than a month since the match of regular season, after having beaten Monza thanks to 3-0 win against Latina. Trying to put the World Champions in a difficult spot, the opponents will rely on the strong aspects of their playing, such as their blocking ability (the fifth more efficient in SuperLega) and on the individual abilities of the middle hitters Volpato and Polo (fourth and ninth blocker of the championship). The most experienced members of the team are the opposite hitter Torres (tenth bomber of the tournament) and the setter Travica, a great surprise has been the Spanish libero Danani La Fuente, best receiver of the regular season (weighted average), in his first season in Italy.
PREVIOUS MATCHES For the first time in their history, Trentino Volley and Pallavolo Padova face eache other in the Play Off Scudetta; the long tradition of facing each other, began in 2000 and was interrupted only in two season, 2012 and 2014 after Pallavolo Padova’s relegation to Serie A2, is in fact composed of thirty matches of regular season. The report is in favor of Trentino Volley, that won 26 matches. Trento also praises a still open series of twenty consecutive victories that lasts since 14 years. In order to find Pallavolo Padova’s latest victory we need to go back to 13th February 2005, when at the Pala San Lazzaro (now Kioene Arena) the home players won for 3-2. In the fifteen matches played in Trento, Padova has only won once: 7th November 2004, for 1-3 with the ex Meszaros mvp. The last direct match dates back to 23rd February 2019: 3-0 for Itas Trentino (sets of 25-23, 25-18, 25-16), with Vettori as the best player on court (14 points, 2 aces, one block and 69%).
THE SERIES The quarterfinals are played best out of three matches; the team that wins two matches in the series passes the round. After match 1, the teams will be back on court in Padua for match 2 Sunday 7th April at 6.00 p.m., while the potential match 3 (if there is any necessity) would be scheduled for Saturday 13th April ( at 8.30 p.m.), again in Trentino. The team that will continue their race will find, in the semifinal, the winning team between Civitanova-Verona, match that will begin Sunday in the Marche. The other two quarterfinals in the upper part of the ranking are Perugia-Monza and Modena-Milano (already on court this evening).
THE REFEREES Match 1 will be arbitrated by the duo composed by Gianni Bartolini and Marco Zavater, at their first match of the season together. Bartolini, from Florence, in Serie A from 1992 and international from 2006, will arbitrate for the twelfth time at the BLM Group Arena in the current SuperLega championship; during this season he already directed Siena-Trento 1-3 on 26th December 2018. Zavater, from Rome, in Serie A from 2008, is instead at his sixteenth seasonal match and already met Itas Trentino during the match in Ravenna won for 3-1 on 9th December 2018 and the match against Verona won for 3-0 at the BLM Group Arena on 23rd January 2019 in the quarterfinals of Coppa Italia 2019.
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The whole match will be told live by Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley. The connections with the BLM Group Arena will take place inside “Campioni di Sport”, sport show of Radio Dolomiti. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be consulted on www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the live radio update on streaming. It is also scheduled the live on streaming video on the web space “Lega Volley Channel”, on www.elevensports.it/superlega (subscription service). The complete pre-recording will be broadcasted primetime on tv on Monday 1st April at 9.30 p.m. on RTTR, Itas Trentino’s tv partner, and replayed at midnight of the same day. On the internet, the updates point to point will be controlled by Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it and will always be active on Itas Trentino’s social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS, MERCHANDISING AND CAF ACLI DAY Match 1 is the last match included in the seasonal membership 2018/19. The tickets presale is active until this evening at 7.00 p.m. at the offices of Promoevent, in via Suffragio 10 in Trento, and at any time on the Internet on www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/play-off-quarti-di-finale-gara-1-itas-trentino/128730. The tickets will also be available at the register of the BLM Group Arena, that will be active from 5.00 p.m., at the same time when the gates to the arena will be opened. Inside, behind the long gallery north side, the fans will find the Itas Trentino merchandising point at their disposal; a very wide range of Trentino Volley products will be on sale. During the match at the BLM Group Arena will also be celebrated the “CAF Acli Day”. In order to celebrate this long-time partnership with the fans of Itas Trentino, Trentino Volley and CAF Acli will organize lots of initiatives that will give a greater visibility to the sponsor of the team. The leds of the arena, the match program and the hospitality room will strongly be characterized by CAF Acli’s logo.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office