Trento, 09 March 2024

Play Off Scudetto, game 2 of the quarter-finals on Sunday

Game 2 of the Play Off Scudetto SuperLega Credem Banca 2024 quarter-finals will be played in Modena on Sunday, March 10. Itas Trentino will be at the PalaPanini for the second time this season in search of another victory, which will bring them closer to qualification for the semi-finals, being ahead 1-0 in the series that will be played at the best of five games. Kick-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.: Radio Dolomiti and streaming live on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Wednesday night's perfect success in front of a friendly crowd allowed the Italian champions to start their Play Offs on the right foot and thus look forward with more confidence to this weekend's away match, in which Podrascanin and his teammates will try to get another win to gain even more advantage.
"We are happy to be ahead 1-0 in the series because, given the circumstances, getting the point of the provisional lead was anything but obvious, but that is part of the past and we have to focus now on Game 2 - coach Fabio Soli stressed - . A tough match awaits us on Sunday in Modena; everyone who knows this sport knows how tough PalaPanini can be, especially in the Play Off Scudetto. We won Game 1 thanks to a solid team effort, with heart, character, and determination. We are aware that, if we want to have our say on this occasion too, we will have to put up a high-level performance, trying to improve those technical-tactical details where we still have room to do so.”
Trento’s line-up arrived in Modena this afternoon, and in the evening, they will have a training session. Game 2 of the quarter-finals of the Play Off Scudetto will be the 35th match of the season: the tally is 28 victories (two of them against Modena) and 6 defeats. The match in Emilia will also be the 148th match in yellow-blue history in the Scudetto Play Off (87 wins and 60 losses), the 62nd ever in the quarter-finals. In the previous twenty first-round appearances, Trentino Volley has won the second match of the series eleven times; the last occasion was in Piacenza, on 14 March 2021.
THE OPPONENTS Valsa Group Modena awaits the Italian champions, ready to make the home court factor count. Since Alberto Giuliani has sat on the bench of the Emilians at PalaPanini, only victories have come: three consecutive wins against Cisterna, Taranto, and Catania. It is a roster that has allowed them to clinch qualification for the Play Off, which until a few weeks before was strongly in question. In the only previous home match of the season against Trento (10 December, ninth round of the regular season), the ‘Canarini’ won in four sets, overcoming the initial advantage of the guests.  For Modena Sunday's match will be the first home game of its thirty-ninth appearance in the Play Off Scudetto: no other club can boast so many; since they were introduced, it has failed to gain access on only three occasions (2004, 2005 and 2009 editions). Modena Volley is also the club that has entered its name on the championship roll of honour the most times (twelve, the first in 1970).
PREVIOUS MATCHES The two clubs have eighty-five official matches on record, with the tally clearly in favour of Trentino Volley (50-35), who has won five of the last six matches played, including Game 1 on Wednesday. The only recent victory for the Emilians, however, came last year at PalaPanini on December 10, 3-1 in the first leg match. The Emilian venue is the one where Trentino Volley has played the most away matches (43) and where it has played most often during the Play Off Scudetto. If we consider only the matches played in the final round that awards the Scudetto, Trento has 15 previous matches with 5 victories; one of these is particularly important because it coincides with the conquest of the fourth Scudetto: 13 May 2015, victory in three sets in Game 4 of the Final. Modena is also linked to the first ever away match in the Play Off, played on 11 April 2003 (Game 1 of the quarter-finals) and lost 3-1 against Kerakoll, then reigning Italian Champions.
THE SERIES Itas Trentino is ahead 1-0 in the quarter-final series, which will be played at the best of five games, by virtue of the 3-0 victory at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Game 1 on March 6 with scores of 25-23, 25-18, 25-18. On Sunday, Game 2 will be played, and it will be the only one played in Emilia if Soli’s team manages to win both this match and the next one (Game 3) on Sunday, March 17 in Trento (5pm). Should Valsa Group win at least one of the next two matches, Game 4 will also be necessary, which would be played again at the PalaPanini on Sunday, March 24 at 6 p.m. Whoever passes the round will find the winner of the Civitanova-Monza quarterfinal (this series will also be a best-of-five match and will start on Sunday, March 31), which sees Monza ahead 1-0 (Game 2 in Lombardy on Sunday). Game 2 of the quarter-finals of the lower part of the scoreboard will also be played on the same day: Milan-Piacenza (1-0) and Verona-Perugia (0-1).
THE REFEREES The direction of Game 2 will be entrusted to Marco Zavater (from Rome, in Serie A since 2008) and Ilaria Vagni (from Perugia, active since 2003 and international since 2014). For Zavater, in his fourteenth match of the season, the last match with Trentino Volley was on February 18 (a home win in three sets against Modena), while for Vagni, in her thirteenth match in the 2023/24 championship, the most recent precedent with the Gialloblù dates back to January 27 (a tie-break defeat against Monza in the Coppa Italia semifinal played in Bologna).
RADIO, TV AND INTERNET 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, March 11, 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 yellow-blue Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office