Padua, 26 December 2023

SuperLega, Itas Trentino is Winter Champion after three-set win in Padua

The first leg of SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 regular season closes in the best possible way for Itas Trentino men's team. By overcoming Padua 3-0 in its home in the eleventh round of the championship (the last of the first leg), the Italian champion lineup has conquered the platonic winter title, confirming its position at the top of the standings after the first half of the top national tournament.
The top spot in the standings with 28 points and just one loss in eleven matches played will allow Fabio Soli's team to be the number one seed in the 2024 Coppa Italia quarterfinal bracket. On January 3, at the ilT quotidiano Arena, the yellow-blue team will face Verona, ranked eighth, in the elimination match that will guarantee the winner access to the Final Four in Bologna on January 27-28.
To get victory number 705 ever in the history of Trentino Volley, the fourteenth out of sixteen matches of the season, and to widen the gap with Perugia (defeated at home by Milan and slipped to minus three), Podrascanin and his teammates offered a show of substance and character even before a good technical-tactical performance. Less supported than usual by the serve and the attack, also due to specific merits of the hosts, who showed a wonderful second line, the Italian Champions had to dig deep in all their wealth of experience to succeed in bringing home a first set that started badly but ended great, a second partial that was complicated in the final part and solved only in the advantages, and a third fraction always controlled but with some attempts to recover by the opponents. The lucidity shown in the important moments and the incisiveness at the net of Rychlicki (MVP with 12 points, 47% in attack, two blocks and an ace), Podrascanin (excellent at the block with four points and in first half with 71%) and the area 4 pair Lavia-Michieletto (25 points between the two) allowed the yellow-blue team to take home the three points and thus be able to celebrate the sixth title of Winter Champion in the history of Trentino Volley, after those previously obtained in the 2003/04, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2014/15 mid-seasons.

Below is the scoreboard of the match (11th round of SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 regular season) played Tuesday evening at the Kioene Arena in Padua.

Pallavolo Padova-Itas Trentino 0-3
(20-25, 32-34, 22-25)
PALLAVOLO PADOVA: Crosato 3, Falaschi, Gardini 9, Plak 6, Gabi Garcia 5, Desmet 20, Zenger (L); Guzzo 7, Porro 1, Fusaro, Zoppellari. N.e. Cardenas Morales, Truocchio, Taniguchi. Coach: Jacopo Cuttini.
ITAS TRENTINO:  Sbertoli 4, Lavia 11, Kozamernik 9, Rychlicki 12, Michieletto 14, Podrascanin 9,  Laurenzano (L). N.e. Nelli, D’Heer, Cavuto, Pace, Berger, Magalini, and Acquarone. Coach: Fabio Soli.
REFEREES: Goitre from Turin e Caretti from Rome.
SET LENGTH: 28’, 40’, 28’; tot: 1h and 36’.
NOTES: 3,976 spectators, total revenue: 69,890. Pallavolo Padova: 6 blocks, 5 aces, 20 serve errors, 4 action errors, 39% in attack, 44% (20%) in reception. Itas Trentino: 12 blocks, 5 aces, 17 serve errors, 5 action errors, 48% offense, 49% (27%) reception. MVP: Rychlicki.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office