Trento, 23 December 2023

SuperLega on court on Boxing Day to close out the First Leg

As per tradition, SuperLega Credem Banca does not stop during the Christmas holidays and on Boxing Day offers the 11th round (the last of the first leg) of the 2023/24 regular season. On this occasion, Itas Trentino will be at the Kioene Arena in Padua to face the host lineup. Kick-off is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 26; live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and streaming live on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
ITAS TRENTINO On the day after Christmas, the Italian champions reach the halfway point of their championship, with a golden opportunity to win the platonic winter title, which would be certain in the event of a victory by any score in Veneto. Even finding success only at the tie break (and thus in the event of a tied finish on 27 points), Trento would in fact boast one more victory than Perugia.
"Padua has historically been an opponent not to be taken lightly, because traditionally, it always has a marked fighting spirit. Even more so when it plays within its own walls, galvanized by a crowd that, on Boxing Day, I imagine could be very large - warns coach Fabio Soli at the presentation of the match -. At the Kioene Arena, Padua has so far left opponents just four points and has always showed very sharp weapons, especially the serve. All these motivations make us understand what kind of match awaits us; during this first part of the championship, we have done a lot, but it would be a serious mistake to think that the difference in the standings between the two teams can by itself guarantee us the victory. Giving the best of our current possibilities will be the best tool to actually achieve it."
To prepare for the match, the team will train both on Christmas Eve afternoon and on Christmas Day itself and will reach Padua immediately afterwards. The only player unavailable is opposite Nelli (who will still be with the group), due to a right knee injury that is on the road to recovery.
THIRTY-SIXTH MATCH IN YELLOW-BLUE HISTORY ON BOXING DAY Playing on the day immediately following Christmas has become a pleasant habit over the years for Trentino Volley: in twenty-three previous seasons of activity, it has taken the court on Boxing Day twelve times. The record sees the yellow-blue team win on nine occasions: 3-1 against Verona in 2005 and 2022, 3-0 against Treviso in 2010, 3-1 against Belluno in 2011, 3-1 against Perugia in 2012, 3-0 against Monza in 2014, 3-1 against Padova in 2016, 3-1 against Monza in 2017, and 3-1 against Siena in 2018. The only three losses were in away matches: 1-3 to Modena in 2006, 1-3 to Treviso in 2007, 2-3 to Verona in 2021. On one occasion Trento also played on Dec. 25: 3-1 home win against Ravenna on Christmas 2019. On this occasion Trentino Volley will play official match number 1,012 ever and will go in search of the 704th win in ever, the 411th in the regular season.
THE OPPONENTS Pallavolo Padova awaits the visit of the Italian champions to try to get a prestigious result that will further gratify its first round, but also to snatch the last pass for the Final Eight of the Coppa Italia from Verona. Cuttini's team occupies ninth place in the standings, two points behind the Scaligeri; to end the first part of the regular season among the top eight, it would have to win the challenge with Trento by any score and hope that Verona loses in Civitanova Marche with the maximum possible score. Beyond the logic related to this goal, the championship of the Patavini has so far been marked by four victories in ten matches, all against direct competitors for a quiet position in the rankings: at the tie break in Taranto and at home with Cisterna, 3-1 with Catania and Verona. In front of its home crowd, it has always gone to points except for the first game (lost 0-3 to Civitanova). The statistics show how the Veneti are very incisive on serve (the fourth in the SuperLega for direct points - 1.73 average per set), also thanks to a great interpreter of the fundamental like opposite Gabi Garcia (first aceman of the list together with Davyskiba with 22 points, and tenth best scorer of the tournament). In the second line, to offer security and quality receptions, plays Germany’s Zenger, who was Trento’s libero between 2021 and 2022, for 52 games, also winning a Supercoppa.
FINAL RUSH OF THE FIRST LEG: COPPA ITALIA FINAL FOUR GRID TO BE DEFINED On Boxing Day, Itas Trentino will know the name of the opponent it will face in the quarterfinals of the Del Monte Coppa Italia 2024, scheduled for January 3. There is already a certainty: Trento will be able to play again in front of its own crowd for the knockout match that qualifies for the Final Four in Bologna (January 27-28), being mathematically already among the top four in the first leg standings. The 11th round of regular season will then define the official ranking by which the quarterfinal pairings will be determined. Itas Trentino, currently in first place with 25 points, will try to defend its supremacy from Perugia's (24 points, will challenge Milan at home) attempt to overtake it again; should it become winter champion, it will face the eighth-ranked team in the quarterfinals, a place for which Verona (12 points - on court on Boxing Day in Civitanova Marche) and Padova itself (10) are still in the running. In case of second place at the end of the first leg, Soli's team would instead challenge the seventh-place team, so potentially in the running are Milan (16 points), but also Modena (17, which will take on Piacenza at PalaPanini) and Lube itself (18). However, the Marche players can never be Trento's opponents in the quarterfinals, because they would finish seventh only in the event of a maximum four-set loss to Verona and Milan's simultaneous three-point win at Perugia; the latter result would still allow Itas Trentino to remain at the top and thus face eighth.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES On tuesday will be played the forty-second official confrontation in the history between the two clubs; the record is clearly in favor of the yellow-blue team, emerging victorious in thirty-four circumstances, but Padua has found success in three of the last ten matches played. In twenty official matches played in Veneto, the locals have won only four times, the last one on April 7, 2019 by 3-0 in Game 2 of the Play Off Scudetto quarterfinals. Trentino Volley's most recent victory on Padua soil is the last match, played on March 5 (1-3 with partials of 27-25, 22-25, 21-25, 27-29). Trentino Volley won also in Padua its first away match in history: it was January 5, 2001, and the then Itas Gruppo Diatec Trentino won 3-1 in what was then called Pala San Lazzaro (now Kioene Arena).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Mauro Goitre (from Turin, in the top league since 2008 and international since 2016) and Stefano Caretti (from Rome, in the top league since 2016), in their fifth and sixth matches of the season in SuperLega Credem Banca, respectively. The last precedent with the Piedmontese whistle for Trentino Volley men's team was also an away challenge (a three-set win in Civitanova Marche on December 2), while for the Capitoline referee, the most recent intersection was the 2023 Super Cup semifinal, lost 1-3 to Perugia on October 31 in Biella.
RADIO, INTERNET, AND TV The match will be reported live by 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 live radio report via streaming.
Also confirmed is live video streaming on the OTT platform "Volleyball World TV"; the service is subject to fee. For further information see https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
On television, a summary will be aired on Friday, December 29, at 4:30 p.m., on RTTR - Trentino Volley's media partner.
On the Internet, point-to-point updates will be taken care of by the Volleyball League's Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it itself, and 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