Trento, 16 May 2023

On Wednesday, at the BLM Group Arena, the game 5 of the Final will award the 2023 Scudetto

Game 5 of the Credem Banca 2023 Scudetto Play Off Final will be played on Wednesday, May 17th, at the BLM Group Arena. Itas Trentino will be back in front of its home crowd in the match that awards the 2022/23 Italian men's title, the last act of the best-of-five matches, currently at 2-2. The kickoff is scheduled at 8:30 p.m.: live coverage on RAI Sport HD, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platforms.
HERE IS ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue lineup faces the final match of its 23rd season of activity with the goal of seizing the success that would allow it to return to win the Scudetto eight years after the last time. To seek success, Itas Trentin will be able to count on the support of its fans, already ready to fill the bleachers, who during these Playoffs have always played an important role in other decisive matches.
"We have arrived at the match that concludes the season and awards the Scudetto after a very long journey but now we do not want to look back: we just want to play at our best this match for which we have worked so hard, throughout the year” explained coach Angelo Lorenzetti as he presented the game; “It is an unpredictable match for many reasons, although I believe that is the fair epilogue to one of the most unpredictable and exciting championships of the last decades, and Itas Trentino is here. We want to be protagonists also on Wednesday night, and to do so we will have to be more ready from the start in reception and capable of capitalizing on the chances we will build. Each set will count on its own; let's get ready to play one at a time with a lot of focus and determination."
The Trentino coach will have to play only without Srecko Lisinac, who six days ago underwent a selective herniectomy surgery of the lumbar spine (the Serbian middle player started the rehabilitation path at the gym these days) in Piacenza. On Wednesday, Trentino Volley will play the 146th match in its history in the Playoff Scudetto (a tally of 85 and 60 losses), the 77th in front of its home crowd, where it has won 57 times. It will be the 53rd match of the season for the yellow-blue team; only in the 2009/2010 and 2016/17 editions (the first coached by Lorenzetti) the team had played more matches, in both cases 56 games. The current tally of this season is 35 wins and 17 losses.
IN GAME 5 OF THE FINAL FOR THE THIRD TIME Wednesday's will be the third "Game 5" that Trentino Volley will play in a Playoff Final in its history: the previous ones are related to the 2009 edition (home defeat in the tiebreak with Piacenza, on the very date of May 17th) and 2013 (home victory in the tie break also with Piacenza, on May 12th). In the span of its twenty participations in the Play Off Scudetto, the yellow-blue club has already played seventeen playoff matches, similar to the one that awaits it on Wednesday, winning eleven of them (the last home game on April 25th with Piacenza for the semifinal of the previous edition). Only one of these relates to a confrontation with Civitanova: semifinal 2022 (defeated in a tie break in Marche region).
THE OPPONENTS After Friday's victory in Game 4, Cucine Lube Civitanova returns to Trento for the third time in 2023 with the goal of defending its title and extending the streak of three consecutive tricolor titles won (seven in total). In fact, from 2019 onward, only the red-white club inscribed its name on the hall of fame of the championship. At the BLM Group Arena the red-white team will conclude the ninth Final in their history, and only in one case (2017/18 season) did the title win not come in the end; on three occasions the Cuccinieri have played a Game 5 in the last act of the scoreboard.
THE BACKGROUND With 94 matches already on record, Cucine Lube Civitanova is the opponent Trentino Volley has faced the most times in official matches: in fact, almost 10 percent of the matches played so far in its history (94 out of 995) have featured Lube on the other side of the net; the tally 41-53 in favor of the team from Marche region. The contest already awarded the tricolor title in the 2012 edition, when it was the red-white team who won at the tiebreak in the V-Day in Assago, and in the 2017 edition, when the best-of-five-game series was also won by the Cuccinieri. Also, in the Playoffs, the two Clubs have also spawned four Semifinals (2010, 2019, 2021 and 2022), with Trento winning only the first one. The two clubs have faced each other in the Final as well in the Coppa Italia (three times: 2012, 2013, 2017), in the Italian Supercoppa (three times: 2009, 2012, 2013) and in the 2018 World Club CHampionship. At the BLM Group Arena, Itas Trentino has scored twenty-two wins in the total thirty-eight previous meetings with Civitanova, which, however, in the last period has often conquered the Trentino facility, finding success in four of the nine most recent matches; the "freshest" success (2-3) dates back to October 20th, 2022. In the Play Off Scudetto Trento has already faced eleven matches in the BLM Group Arena facility against Cucine Lube, achieving victory in five instances.
THE SERIES Itas Diatec Trentino and Cucine Lube Civitanova stand at 2-2 in the SuperLega Credem Banca 2023 Scudetto Playoff Final series, by virtue of both teams' victories in front of their home crowd for their respective teams: at the BLM Group Arena the yellow-blue team won on May 1st 3-1 win (with sets of 25-23, 23-25, 25-23 and 25-17) and on May 7th 3-0 win (25-17, 25-20, 25-16); while Civitanova replied on May 4th during Game 2 with a 3-2 victory (25-21, 25-15, 19-25, 23-25, 17-15) and on May 12th with a 3-1 win in Game 4 (25-18, 27-25, 20-25, 25-16). Whoever wins Game 5 then definitively closes the tally in their favor and becomes the 2022/23 Italian Champion.
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by the duo from Veneto formed by Andrea Puecher (from Rubano - Padua) and Massimo Florian (from Altivole, Treviso), in their nineteenth and seventeenth matches in SuperLega 2022/23, respectively. For Puecher, in the Serie A since 2003 and an international since 2013, five of this with Trentino Volley, including Game 5 of the Playoff Semifinals, won 3-1 over Piacenza last April 25th. For Florian, in the top category since 2007, already three seasonal matches with the yellow-blue line-up; the most recent one last February 19th in Milan (3-2 win).
RADIO, TV AND INTERNET  The match will be a global media event, enjoying simultaneous live coverage on television, radio and the Internet. On the small screen it will be broadcast by RAI Sport HD, a channel present on the digital terrestrial platform at number 58 and on RAI PLAY platform. Live coverage is planned on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found at www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio report in live streaming. The live video streaming on the OTT platform “Volleyball World Tv” is also confirmed, the service is for a fee. For more in-depth information on the use of the same consult the site www.welcome.volleyballworld.tv/faq-it. On TV the match recap will be aired on Monday, May 22nd at 9:40 p.m., on RTTR - partner TV of Trentino Volley. Eventually, on the Internet point-to-point updates will be edited by the website of the Italian Volley League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it itself and will always be active on the yellow-blue’s team social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS ARE SOLD-OUT The BLM Group Arena already sold out on Monday: 4,000 spectators in the bleachers. Therefore, on Wednesday, the facility’s box offices will be open starting at 7:30 p.m., only for accreditation pickup, while the entrances will open at 7:45 p.m.. The match is included only in the "Full" type of season ticket.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office