Trento, 09 December 2023

SuperLega, the 83rd a22 derby for the ninth round in Modena on Sunday

The ninth round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 regular season will be played this weekend. Itas Trentino men's team will be once again on the road, visiting Valsa Group on Sunday, December 10. Kick-off is scheduled for 6 p.m at the PalaPanini in Modena. Live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and streaming live on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
ITAS TRENTINO The Italian champions face the last away match of their first-leg with the goal of preserving the unbeaten streak in the league that has lasted since the first day. They will also try to regain the top spot in the rankings, currently in the hands of Perugia, which has two more points and one more game played.
"After last Sunday's one in Civitanova, the SuperLega calendar offers us another difficult and challenging away match. - coach Fabio Soli said at the match presentation - Playing at Modena's PalaPanini always reserves strong sensations that we want to live fully, knowing very well that this match will represent an important step on our path in the regular season. We arrive there with a week of work behind us, in which we were able to develop the activity in the gym, focusing on both the physical and technical aspects in anticipation of the final rush of 2023 that will see us play an official game every three days until December 30. A very complicated game awaits us, because Valsa Group is a valuable lineup that blends talent and experience at the same time and will be supported by a large crowd. Our goal is to continue on the path of growth; we want to try to take a further step forward in terms of play, continuity, but also the ability to suffer in the face of the difficulties to which Modena will surely subject us."
The team will reach Modena in the early evening today, after performing the eve training at the ilT quotidiano Arena in the afternoon and the subsequent transfer by bus. The only unavailable player is Nelli (who will still be with the group) due to a right knee injury that is however on the road to recovery. It will be the 546th official away match in the history of Trentino Volley men's sector, the 12th of the season, and will see the yellow-blue Club go in search of its 702nd all-time win out of 1,008 matches played. After the match, the Champions will remain in Emilia and on Monday morning will transfer to Bologna where they will take a scheduled flight to reach Poland, the next destination in an early December that has always seen them play away.
THE OPPONENTS Fresh off two victories in a row on the road (in Cisterna 3-1 and in Taranto at the tie break), Valsa Group Modena returns to play a home match three weeks after the last one (home knockout with Civitanova) to try to extend the streak and earn more precious points for its ranking. It currently has twelve points and occupies the seventh place, just behind Milan; the Emilians' path so far has been marked by five successes and three setbacks, only with teams ahead of it in the standings: in addition to Civitanova, it has lost to Monza at home and Perugia. The new members of the roster were integrated quickly, so much so that Sapozhkov, Davyskiba and Juantorena were often among the best in the team entrusted to Francesco Petrella, who until last May was Lorenzetti's second on Trento’s bench (281 games as Assistant Coach). In fact, the former Monza setter is his team's best scorer in the league with 115 points (12 more than the Russian opposite) and is the best hitter together with Gaby Garcia (19 ace), while Osmany (another great ex) is the fifth attacker and the third receiver in the category by weighted average. More generally, Valsa Group is a team that knows how to impose itself at break point, mainly thanks to its serve: the most prolific in the tournament after the first eight rounds, with 57 direct points (1.73 per set).
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES Modena is the second most frequently faced opponent by Trento in its twenty-three-and-a-half-year history (the first being Lube); Sunday will be the 83rd confrontation. The record is 48-34 in favour of the Club from via Trener, also thanks to ten wins in the fifteen most recent matches, with a full in the last season (four out of four), when the Emilians won just three sets. The last match played at PalaPanini dates back to December 28, 2022: 3-1 for Trento in the Coppa Italia Quarterfinal; identical result obtained two months earlier in the regular season match. The first ever match was played right in Modena on October 29, 2000, with a 3-0 home victory marked by Vigor Bovolenta (13 points with 8 winning blocks). In its history, Trentino Volley has won nineteen of the thirty-nine official matches played in Modena, including the last two.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Stefano Cesare (from Rome, active since 1999 and international since 2010) and Rocco Brancati (from Città di Castello - Perugia, on the roster since 2015), in their sixth and fifth matches of the season in SuperLega Credem Banca, respectively. The last precedent with the Capitoline whistle for Trentino Volley was also an away challenge (victory in three sets in Verona on November 5), while for the Umbrian referee the most recent match was game 1 of the Play Off Scudetto 2023 Quarterfinals, played at home on March 19 and won in the tie break against Monza.
RADIO, INTERNET, AND TV The match will be covered live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the live commentary via streaming.
The live streaming video on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv" is also confirmed (paid service). For more information on its use, please refer to https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
A summary of the match will be broadcast on television on Monday, December 11, at 9:50 PM, on RTTR - media partner of Trentino Volley.
On the internet, point-to-point updates will be managed by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and also on www.trentinovolley.it. They will always be active on the yellow-blue Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram, and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office