Verona, 26 December 2021

Verona Volley-Itas Trentino 3-2, the match report

Match report. Itas Trentino came to Verona with Lisinac not at his best (back pain); Lorenzetti therefore preferred D'Heer in the middle of the net along with Podrascanin and confirmed all the other five regulars in the starting six: Sbertoli on set, Lavia as opposite, Kaziyski and Michieletto on attack, Zenger at libero. Verona responds with Raphael at set, Jensen as opposite, Mozic and Magalini as opposite hitters, Aguenier and Cortesia in the middle, Bonami at libero. The guests got off to a flying start and after just a few minutes Stoytchev was already forced to stop the game at 5-1, as Kaziyski (attack and ace) and Lavia (block on Jensen) showed they were on the ball immediately. When the game resumes, however, the gap widens again (8-3), as the Scaligeri struggled to find their feet on the court and Trento showed a really strong serve (13-6 and 16-7 with two more points by Matey). At 20-11 Sbertoli hit Jensen but injured the pinkie of his right hand, forcing him to leave the court. Sperotto came in for him, and the yellow-blue team didn't suffer any psychological repercussions, closing the set on 25-13, with D'Heer also serving two consecutive aces.
In the second set Sperotto remained on the court (Sbertoli did not come back) and the match changed script and became very hard fought, blow by blow (2-4, 6-4 and 10-11), with the two teams constantly alternating in the lead. An attack error by D'Heer gave Verona a +2 advantage (12-14), forcing Lorenzetti to interrupt the game; when the game resumed, Michieletto got the guests back on track (16-16). Two blocks by Podrascanin on Mozic allowed Itas Trentino to take the lead (20-19). The yellow-blue team lead until 23-22, then Verona turned the tables with Jensen, starting to have a long sequence of set points (six in a row), which the Scaligeri didn't take advantage of, because Kaziyski and his teammates didn't concede anything and, indeed, at the first opportunity they closed the partial in their favour with a block-out by Matey himself (31-29).
Verona tried to get back on track in the third set, pushing hard with serve and block, fundamentals that immediately put them ahead 4-7 and 7-11, when Kaziyski suffered three consecutive blocks. The team from Trento tried to raise its heads again with Podrascanin (9-12) and then incredibly in just a few minutes they found parity at 14 with a good hit by D'Heer. The yellow-blue team fuel ran out, however, because then the Scaligeri got off to a flying start with Mozic and Jensen (14-18) and quickly collected the points that took the two teams into the fourth set (20-25).
The script didn't change in the fourth period, with Verona taking good action from the blocks in this case as well (0-3, 4-7 and 5-9) taking full advantage of the compactness of the block, exalted in the second half. Itas Trentino no longer found room to pass and suffered an increasingly heavy loss (8-16, 10-20 and 10-25) that took the challenge to the tie break.
In the fifth set, Lorenzetti chose Pinali over Kaziyski and the game was back on point to point until 9-9, when Mozic hit the ace that gave the team a +2 advantage (9-11). It was the breakthrough that decided the destiny of the match; afterwards Trento could no longer catch up with their opponents: the 42nd derby of the Adige River ended 12-15.

Trentino Volley Srl
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