Trento, 30 December 2023

SuperLega, on Saturday the return leg begins at the ilT quotidiano Arena

Saturday December 30th kicks off the return leg of regular season SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24. Itas Trentino will be the protagonist in front of its own public, hosting Cisterna Volley at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento. Kick-off scheduled for 6 pm; live on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After taking first place in the standings at the end of the first half of the season, the Italian champions open the downward phase of the championship by facing one of the three teams that have been able to take points away from them (the other two are Taranto and Modena) in what will be the last engagement of the calendar year 2023.
"We begin the second half of the season aware that what we have done so far has been something special that offers value to the daily commitment of this group; this first period, however, represents the initial part of a work that will have its crucial moment in the coming months - presented coach Fabio Soli - . We have the will to continue the path of growth we have undertaken, aware that we still have room for improvement and that our competitors will do the same. We have therefore used the training sessions of the last few days to add quality both in the fundamentals and in the game, knowing that only with a careful, effective and continuous performance will we be able to aspire to a good result in the next home match against Cisterna. Our opponents are just back from a good home win against Monza, which showed how they can put anyone in trouble in a single match, especially thanks to their high quality in the batting order; we are well reminded of that in the very tight match played in Lazio at the end of October".
The Trentino coach will have the entire squad at his disposal. Nelli, who has been unavailable for the past few weeks due to a right knee injury, has been training with his teammates again in recent days and will be on the bench regularly. The preparation for the match will be completed with this afternoon's training session and with Saturday morning's final training session. On this occasion Trentino Volley will play match number 1,013 in its men's history, number 46 in the calendar year in which it has collected 33 victories.
THE OPPONENTS It is a Cisterna Volleyball refreshed by the 3-1 home victory over Monza on Boxing Day that will appear on Saturday evening in Trento. In the last round of the first half of the SuperLega season, the Pontini team achieved the most striking result of their championship so far.The three-point victory over the Brianzoli allowed Falasca's team to reach Padua on 10 points in the standings (ninth place) and to move six points clear of last-place Catania, thus ending a losing streak that had lasted for four consecutive rounds and more than a month. The great protagonists of the success were the three high ball hitters: the French opposite Faure and the lateral hitters Ramon (Spanish) and Peric (Serbian), who had already been able to put the Trentino second line in great difficulty in the first match. The return at the end of November of an experienced and talented director like Baranowicz (who replaced Saitta) has certainly contributed to raising the level of a team that, statistics in hand, has outstanding individuals in every fundamental: Faure himself is the current best scorer in the league, Ramon is the fourth aceman, Piccinelli is among the first eight free for number of perfect receptions, Nedeljkovic is the second absolute blocker with 34 winning blocks (seven more than his compatriot Podrascanin). So far Cisterna has only picked up one away point in five matches: the one won in Padua on 12 November.
BACKGROUND With Saturday's match Cisterna Volley (formerly Latina and Top Volley) joins Cuneo in fifth place in the special ranking of the clubs that Trentino Volley faced the most times in official matches: forty-seven. Only Civitanova (96), Modena (83), Piacenza (74) and Perugia (53) can boast more. The balance is 36-10 on the Club of via Trener, with Pontini not having won in Trento since 13 April 2014 (1-3), in a match valid for the playoffs for 5th place, and having won in just three of the last eighteen confrontations. In Trentino, Lazio have only won on two other occasions (out of a total of twenty-three matches played) and always at the end of a challenge that lasted four sets: 1 December 2002 and 6 January 2007. The most recent previous match played in Trento dates back to 23 October 2022: 3-2 with scores of 20-25, 25-18, 35-33, 21-25, 15-13; the first match of this regular season also ended in a tie break, won by Itas Trentino with scores of 18-25, 25-15, 28-26, 17-25, 8-15 and Lavia mvp (18 points).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Alessandro Pietro Cavalieri (from Lamezia Terme, in Serie A since 2006) and Andrea Puecher (from Rubano - Padua, on the roster since 2003 and international since 2014), in their third and sixth matches of the season respectively in SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24. For Cavalieri this is the first ever meeting with the Trentino Volley men's team, while the most recent precedent with Trento for Puecher refers to the evening of the fifth Gialloblù championship (3-0 home victory over Civitanova on 17 May).
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley's media partner. 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 radio commentary in streaming.
Live video streaming is also confirmed on the OTT platform "Volleyball TV"; the service is subject to payment. More information on how to use it can be found at https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
On television a summary will be aired on Monday 1 January 2024 at 21.45, on RTTR - Trentino Volleyball's media partner.
On the internet, point-to-point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it and will be available on the Gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKET OFFICE The match is included in both types of season tickets offered for this season by Trentino Volleyball (full and basic). You can still buy tickets for the single match at any time on the internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-cisterna/225591. The coupons will also be available on Saturday at the ilT quotidiano Arena cash desks, which will be open from 5 pm, the same time at which the arena entrances will also open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office