Trento, 17 February 2024

SuperLega, the a22 derby returns to the ilT quotidiano Arena on Sunday

The 20th round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 regular season, the ninth of the second leg, will be played this weekend. Itas Trentino men's team will take the court again in front of its home crowd, hosting Valsa Group Modena at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento for the traditional "A22 derby." Kick-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.; live on Radio Dolomiti and streaming live on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
ITAS TRENTINO A leg later, the Italian champions return to face the only team that has so far been able to stop them in the championship, and they will do so in the very match that offers the first chance to mathematically win the regular season (which Trentino Volley has not achieved since 2015). With an eight-point lead over the second in the standings Perugia, the yellow-blue team will need just one point in the last three games to mathematically secure first place, certainly being able to count in the event of a tied finish on a higher number of successes than Sir Susa Vim.
"The first leg match at PalaPanini is a memory well present in our minds and that’s a good thing, because it confirms how important it is to always keep the focus very high when you have an opponent like Modena on the other side of the net - Coach Fabio Soli presented the match in this way -. In that circumstance we started strong, but as the match went on, we couldn’t keep the same level, suffering from the aggressiveness of the opponents, who were capable of overturning the balance between serve and receive. At a certain point we switched off. The Valsa Group that we will challenge on Sunday is a different lineup, because in the meantime it has changed coach and found new mechanisms and game balance. So, we have to be ready for some variation in the system of the Emilians; a consistent and determined performance will be necessary."
The Trentino coach will have the entire roster at his disposal and will finalize his preparation for the match with this afternoon's practice and Sunday morning's finishing practice at the ilT quotidiano Arena. Trentino Volley will play match number 1,025 in the history of its men’s division, the twenty-ninth in the 2023/24 season in which it has so far collected twenty-four victories. The last and only home loss in thirteen appearances was on January 17 (2-3 against Resovia).
THE OPPONENTS The victories obtained between last Sunday and Wednesday night at PalaPanini (in order, 3-0 over Cisterna and 3-2 over Taranto) have turned a corner for Valsa Group Modena. After a difficult period (seven defeats in the previous eight games), which cost coach Francesco Petrella (until last year in Trento as Lorenzetti's Assistant Coach) his bench, the Emilians resumed their run toward the Play Offs (eighth place in the standings), led by new coach Alberto Giuliani who, to achieve a turnaround, decided to try the three-spiker formation: Rinaldi and former Trentino player Juantorena in area 4, Davyskiba in area 2 and 1. The move immediately bore fruit, as the Belarusian hammer scored 47 points in the last seven days, making him the MVP of both home matches. Making way for him is Russian Sapozhkov, who was overtaken in the league's best scorer rankings by the former Monza hammer (11th with 260 points). The coach from Marche also bet heavily on German Brehme in the middle, again offering a starting jersey in the libero role to Gollini (ninth receiver in the league with 30% of perfect balls), after the second injury of the season occurred to Federici. The statistics confirm the great talent of Juantorena: the Cuban-born spiker is the fifth best attacker and has the 11th best serve in the league by weighted average. Precisely the serve has been so far the most convincing fundamental for the Valsa Group (118 aces): only Piacenza (128) and Perugia (126) have scored more direct points in the first nineteen rounds of the championship.
PREVIOUS MATCHES Modena is the second opponent that Trentino Volley has challenged the most times in its nearly twenty-four-year history (the first being Lube); Sunday’s will be the 84th confrontation. The tally is in favour of the Club form via Trener: 48-35; however, the only previous match of this season was won by the Emilians 3-1, on Dec. 10 at PalaPanini with partials of 21-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-16 and Bruno MVP. The last match played in Trento was just over eleven months ago (March 12), with success for the hosts in three sets (25-18, 25-20, 25-22) and another setter winning the best player award (in that case Sbertoli). The home court advantage has been proven true in twenty-five of the thirty-five previous A22 derbies played in Trento; the most recent success away is dated February 6, 2022, in a tie break.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Marco Zavater (of Rome, in Serie A since 2008) and Alessandro Rossi of (from Ventimiglia - Imperia, active since 2016), in their 11th and eighth matches of the season, respectively. The most recent intersection with the yellow-blue team for Zavater dates back to the 3-1 home win on Nov. 11 against another team from Emilia (Piacenza), while for Rossi the most recent match of Trentino Volley is the one on Oct. 28 (home win in the tie break against Taranto).
RADIO, INTERNET, AND TV 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 Monday, February 19, at 9:45 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-modena/230060.  Coupons will also be available on Sunday at the ilT quotidiano Arena ticket counters, active from 5:00 p.m., the same time at which the arena entrances will also open.
SYNERGIE DAY To celebrate together with yellow-blue fans the long-standing partnership, Trentino Volley and Synergie will prepare a series of initiatives that will see the official sponsor (from two seasons also on the game uniforms) as the protagonist on the Match Program, in the Hospitality Area and on the video-wall of the arena, for the occasion strongly characterized by the Synergie logo. All spectators in attendance will receive at the entrance a nice gadget that will allow them to support their favourite team in an even more colourful and loud way. Before the game players from both teams will throw toward the audience the Synergie-branded T-shirt they wore until moments before, which will also bear their original autograph. Also branded Synergie will be the match's MVP award, chosen by the journalists present in the press box.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office