Trento, 13 April 2022

On Thursday in Civitanova (8.30 p.m.) will start the series of the semifinal of Play-Off

The semifinals of Play-Off Scudetto SuperLega Credem Banca 2022 start. Itas Trentino, top of the league number three on the board, will face Cucine Lube Civitanova, second classified in regular season, in a match to the best of five sets. Match 1 will be played on Thursday 14 April at 8.30 p.m. at Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova Marches: live by RAI Sport +, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the platform OTT Volleyball World Tv.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO. After achieving two big goals such as the qualification to the Final of CEV Champions League and the semifinals of Play-Off during last week, the yellow-blue formation is trying to achieve another goal: trying to kick out of the race the defending champions. In other to do so, it will be necessary (at least) one victory in an away match on a normally tough court such as the one of Civitanova Marche, where Trentino Volley imposed a stop to the home team only once out of seventeen total matches.
“We will face a great team such as Lube that during regular season was above us in the ranking and in the last moments got all the regular players back,” said the trainer Angelo Lorenzetti while presenting. “As happened in the double match in Champions League against Perugia and in the one of the quarter final against Piacenza, we have the right tools to give our best and play proudly. The last few weeks were demanding but they surely set an important step in our growth path. Trying to prove ourselves at high level both technically and mentally will be a further step to make, if we want to make things difficult for our opponents.”
Trento's trainer can count on all thirteen regular players, who went to the Marches late in the morning. Match 1 will be the forty-seventh seasonal match for Trentino Volley, the 938th official one of its history. For five players (Albergati,  D'Heer, Lavia, Sbertoli, Zenger) it will be the debut in a semifinal of Play-Off Scudetto of the Italian Championship. Kaziyski is on the other hand the player that counts the most number of matches with the yellow-blue T-shirt (25 matches out of eight previous series).
SEMIFINAL OF PLAY-OFF SCUDETTO NUMBER FOURTEEN FOR TRENTINO VOLLEY. On Thursday will start the fourteenth semifinal of Play-Off Scudetto in eight participations in Trentino Volley history, the thirteenth in the last fifteen years. Eight are the cases in which the Society of Trener street won the turn, entering the final. The previous negative matches are against Modena as opponent (1-3), the one of 2017/18 with Perugia (2-3) and the last two matches against Civitanova (1-3 – 2018/19 and 2020/21). In each of the thirteen series played in the past, Trentino Volley won at least once. In Play-Off, Trento has played to date 127 matches in total, winning 75 cases (24 of them in an away match) and losing in 52 cases (36 of them at BLM Group Arena). The player that has the most number of matches played in this phase is Matey Kaziyski, achieving 70 presences, considering also last Sunday’s match.
THE OPPONENTS. Defending champions of Italy, Cucine Lube Civitanova starts in its facility the series of semifinal with the goal of achieving once again the access to the last match of the board, a goal achieved six times in the last nine participations. The match’s kick-off against Itas Trentino will see for the first time the whole team from the Marches, thanks to the recovery of all its regular players who managed to train with perseverance in the last elven days. The ongoing presence is the twenty-sixth in Play-off Scudetto of the red-black Club, which was able to win six times the final victory: three times as Macerata and three as Civitanova Marche.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES. With 84 official matches that have already been played, Cucine Lube Civitanova is in absolute the opponent that Trentino Volley faced the most in its history. The evaluation is 36 victories and 48 defeats. The two societies will be facing one another for the sixth time in Play-Off Scudetto, the fourth time in semifinal. The match is indeed happened also in the same phase of the 2010 edition, when the winning team in four matches (3-1) was Itas Diatec Trentino, defeated by Cuneo in Bologna in the following V-Day, and in the 2019 and 2021 editions, when in both cases the team of the Marches was the one to win (then winning team against Perugia) for 3-1. Again in Play-Off, both teams faced one another in the finals (2012 and 2017 editions), both matches won by the team from the Marches. Trento and Lube played against one another in the semifinal of Coppa Italia (three times in the 2016, 2019 and 2020 editions), in Champions League (twice, 2009 and 2016 editions) and in the Club World Championship (2021). Three are the previous seasonal matches, two of them with field-factor always respected: on October 31st 2021 success for 3-1 for Trento at BLM Group Arena and on February 2nd 2022 at Eurosuole Forum with victory at tie-break by Lube. In archive also the semifinal of the Club World Championship 2021, played on December 10 in Betim and won at tie-break by Lube. In Civitanova Marche, Trentino Volley won only once out of seventeen matches played against the home team (on March 28th in match 1 of the semifinal of last edition of Play-Off). In the facility in the Marches, the yellow-blue team won on October 24th 2021 its third Supercoppa in its history thanks to the success for 3-1 in the final against Monza.
THE SERIES. The semifinals, as well as the final, are played to the best of five matches. The series potentially develops on a thirteen-day calender: after match 1, the teams will go to Trento for match 2 set on Monday 18th at 6 p.m., while match 3 will be set once again in the Marches on Thursday April 21st (at 8.30 p.m.). The potential matches 4 and 5 will be played, if they are needed, respectively on Sunday 24th at BLM Group Arena (temporary time 6 p.m.) and then on Wednesday 27th at 8.30 p.m. in the Marches. The winning team of the match will find in the final the winning team of Perugia-Modena, series that will start this evening at 8.30 p.m. in Umbria.
THE REFEREES. The match will be supervised by Umberto Zanussi (from Treviso, in the highest category since 2006) and by Alessandro Cerra (from Bologna, in Seria A since 2014). For Zanussi (who also supervised match 1 of the semifinal of Play-Off of last edition) it is the eighteenth seasonal match in SuperLega. The last match with Trento is on February 6th (home defeat at tie break against Modena). For Cerra it is the fourteenth match in the highest series of this season. The last match with Trento was on January 30th in Monza (success in four sets).
TV, RADIO AND THE INTERNET. The fight will be a global media event, that will have live on TV, radio and the Internet. In the small screen, the match will be aired by RAI Sport +, channel present on the platform digitale terrestre on channel 58 with chronicles by Maurizio Colantoni and Andrea Lucchetta.
The live chronicles is on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will be also possible to follow the radio updates live on streaming.
The live streaming video is also confirmed in the platform OTT “Volley World Tv”. The service is for a fee. For more information on its use please go no www.welcome.volleyballworld.tv/faq-it.
On TV, a sinthesis of the match will be aired on Friday April 15th at 4 p.m., on RTTR – partner TV of Trentino Volley.
On the Internet the point-to-point updates will be supervised by Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it and the Social Netwrok of the teamm will always be active (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook,  www.trentinovolley.it/instagram e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office