Trento, 13 February 2024

SuperLega, on Wednesday at ilT quotidiano Arena the remake of the Play Off Final

The eighth round of the return leg, the 19th overall, of SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 regular season will be played entirely on Wednesday, February 14. After a three-week wait, Itas Trentino men's team will take the court again in front of its home crowd, hosting Cucine Lube at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento: it's a remake of the 2023 Scudetto Final. Kick-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.; live on RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti and streaming live on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
ITAS TRENTINO The Italian champions face their first home match of February, challenging the team that contended them for the most recent scudetto up to game 5. The two 3-0 wins obtained in the first part of the month allowed the yellow-blue team to gain an important margin on the second place in the standings (still occupied by Perugia, now eight points away) and to be able to approach the final phase of the regular season with even greater serenity and awareness of their own means.
"We are hosting Civitanova, a team that is in top shape at the moment and that, thanks to the many successes achieved in the last period, is fully in the running for at least third place in the standings. A very difficult match awaits us, as is to be expected whenever we face Cucine Lube - coach Fabio Soli presented the match in this way - . It is a talented lineup and as such can make life difficult for any opponent; on our part, we are happy to return to play in front of our audience, confident that the support of our fans will be enough to guarantee us a nice propulsive boost that will have to be accompanied by a quality and consistent performance".
Trentino’s coach has no particular training problems: for Wednesday's match he will be spoilt for choice, being able to count on the traditional seven starters but also on all the other members of the roster, some of whom appeared in excellent condition already last Saturday in Catania (D'Heer, Magalini and Acquarone). The preparation for the match will be completed with this afternoon's practice and Wednesday morning's finishing practice. Trentino Volley will play match number 1,024 in the history of its men’s division, the twenty-eighth in the 2023/24 season in which so far it has collected twenty-three victories; eleven of these are home matches. In the league, the unbeaten streak has lasted nine games and just over two months. The last defeat was on December 10, 2023 in Modena.
THE OPPONENTS After six victories in the seven games already played in the second half of the season (only loss in Perugia) and sixteen points collected out of the twenty-one available in the return leg of the regular season, Cucine Lube Civitanova comes to Trento to try to keep its positive momentum in the league and to further fuel the possibility of hooking Piacenza in third place. The gap to that spot in the standings is now just one length, but with the chance to play a direct clash with Gas Sales Bluenergy next Sunday in front of their home crowd. Blengini's team in the last period also had to do without a star player in its roster such as Zaytsev, who in the home match against Modena (won in three sets) suffered a second-degree muscle injury to the long adductor of the right thigh. The Marches coach therefore offered the area 4 role to Bottolo, who together with Nikolov forms a diagonal of hammers of absolute prospect; the young Bulgarian is the fourth-ranked spiker in the league by weighted average. The most in-form element of the red-white roster answers to the name of Chinenyeze; the French middle blocker is confirming himself as a first-rate attacker thanks also to a well-oiled understanding with setter De Cecco. Finally, statistics confirm the great contribution offered by opposite Lagumdzija during the regular season: sixth best scorer, seventh best serve and thirteenth blocker of the league.
PREVIOUS MATCHES Cucine Lube Civitanova is by far the opponent with whom Trentino Volley has played the most official matches: a total of ninety-six, including regular season (47), Play Offs (26), Coppa Italia (8), Supercoppa italiana (5), Champions League (8) and World Club Championship (2). The tally is in favour of the opponents: 53-43, but Itas Trentino has won five of the last seven matches, including the one in the first leg (3-0 in Civitanova Marche on Dec. 3 with partials of 25-17, 25-22, 25-16 and Michieletto MVP) and the three most recent ones played at the ilT quotidiano Arena: 3-0 on May 17 and May 7, 3-1 on May 1. Civitanova hasn’t won in Trento since Oct. 20, 2022 (in a tie break) and, overall, have conquered the Via Fersina facility in sixteen of their thirty-nine previous attempts.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Dominga Lot (from Santa Lucia di Piave - Treviso, in Serie A since 2010 and international since 2017) and Rossella Piana (from Carpi - Modena, on the roster since 2006 and international since 2014), respectively in their thirteenth and tenth matches of this season of SuperLega Credem Banca. For Lot, the most recent match with Itas Trentino was Dec. 17 (3-1 home win over Perugia), while for Piana, the last intersection with the yellow-blue team is dated Nov. 5 (three-set win in Verona).
RADIO, INTERNET, AND TV The match will be a global media event, with simultaneous live coverage on TV, radio, and the Internet. On television it will be broadcasted by RAI Sport HD, channel number 58 of the digital terrestrial.
The match will be covered in live commentary by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where live radio commentary can also be followed via streaming.
The live video streaming on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv" is also confirmed; there is a charge for the service. For more information on how to access it, please visit https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
A summary will be aired on television on Friday, February 16, at 4:30 PM, on RTTR - media partner of Trentino Volley.
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 always be active on the yellow-blue Social Network (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS The match is included in both types of men's season tickets offered for this season by Trentino Volley (full and standard). You can still purchase single match tickets anytime on https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-civitanova/229448.  Coupons will also be available on Wednesday at the ilT quotidiano Arena ticket counters, active from 7:30 p.m., the same time at which the arena entrances will also open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office