Verona, 08 October 2022

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

The match report. For the first away game of the regular season, Angelo Lorenzetti starts again from the standard starting six composed by Sbertoli as setter, Lavia as opposite spiker, Michieletto and Kaziyski as hitter spikers, Lisinac and Podrascanin as middle blockers, Laurenzano as libero. Radostin Stoytchev, Verona team’s coach, replies with Raphael as setter, Sapozhkov as opposite spiker, Keita and Mozic as hitter spikers, Cortesia and Mosca as middle blockers and Gaggini as libero. The beginning is in the guests’ hands, who, with a very sharp serve and a very inspired Lavia at the net, immediately got the upper hand (4-1 and 7-2); the hosts tried to make a comeback with Sapozhkov (8-6). Trento restarts with Michieletto, who on serve solves very difficult situations against the lined up block (11-8 and 14-10), but the opponents do not give up and, first with the Russian opposite spiker, and then with Mozisc as setter, they climb back to the top until 17-16 (Lorenzetti’s time out). Kaziyski made another sprint (22-19), which was not the determining one; with Mosca’s serve (and a direct ace, too), the Verona team found a draw at 22 points. When the game restarted, after the time out requested by Trentino’s coach, his boys offered the desired reaction: break point by the captain and decisive ball change made by Michieletto for 25-23 that guaranteed the outside advantage.
The second partial is balanced against, but it it Itas Trentino who hold the game’s reins first, with the Michieletto’s usual pickups (8-6 and 22-10), among attacks and serves. Even in this case WithU does not give up, and with Mozic and an error by Podrascanin scored the first tie and then overcomes, forcing Lorenzetti to interrupt the game  (13-14). When they resumed it, two aces by Sapozhkov make the hosts rise to the first advantage of the night (13-16), but it lasts just few seconds, because Lisinac stopped Mozic twice at the block for 16-16. The teams do not slacken off; Trent bounced back from 21-23 with Lavia on his shields but then cracked on Verona's third set ball (25-27), made by Mozic with an additional point shot.
At 1-1 the tight contest restarted, but once again it was the guests who set the pace and flew to +3 after the initial tie score through Michieletto (from 8-8 to 12-9). The +3 is not reassuring for Kaziyski and his teammates, however, who often suffer on the receiving end and are caught up as early as 16-16, when Sapozhkov finds a good moment at the net. The end of the partial was all in the sign of Verona Team, who revved up the engine from 19-19 and scored a partial of 1-6 that allowed them to win the set on 21-25 thanks to Mozic.
At the start of the fourth period, Trento suffered the psychological repercussion of the bad epilogue of the previous fraction and suffered at the block (2-5); Lorenzetti alternated the libero (Pace in for Laurenzano), but the most concrete response came from Michieletto, who once again carried the team on his shoulders, bringing them back in close contact with their opponents (10-11, ace). After that, Lisinac was the one to held the reins, again from the nine-metre line, propitiating the tie on 13-13 and then the overtaking (15-13) with Lavia ready on the block to stop Sapozhkov. Stoytchev's time out clarified his team's ideas, and on returning to the court they scored a counter-partial in the sign of Sapozhkov (18-19). Verona accelerated again, taking a 19-22 lead, but Itas Trentino had a remarkable turnaround: with Lavia and Kaziyski they regained the lead, reached 23-23, cancelled a set point and then capitalised on the sixth set point at 30-28 after an ace by newcomer Nelli had reversed the trend.
The tie-break was the summary of the sets played previously, with continuous frontal reversals and very close battles (4-7, 10-8 and 13-13); it was decided in the advantages by an ace by Cortesia on 15-17.

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