Trento, 02 April 2024

Play Off Scudetto, on Wednesday Semifinal Match 2 in Monza

Game 2 of the Credem Banca 2024 Scudetto Play Off Semifinal will be played on Wednesday, April 3 at the Opiquad Arena in Monza. Itas Trentino will pay a visit to Mint Vero Volley Monza, finding themselves ahead 1-0 in the series, which is a best-of-five match. Kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m.: live RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After the precious victory in game 1, the Italian champion lineup travels to Brianza to try to grant an encore, in order to take a double advantage and look at the second part of the series with a better chance of passing the round.
"The success achieved on Sunday was very important, but we know very well that an even more difficult task awaits us on Wednesday," explained coach Fabio Soli at the presentation of the appointment - . Because of the track record we have this season with Monza, I am convinced that the series will be complicated and full of increasing difficulties; raising our level of play, especially in terms of continuity, will be the main objective on which to focus in game 2 because we saw in the Easter Day game that there are margins to do so. Once again a few balls will make the difference."
The Trentino lineup will complete its preparation for the date with this afternoon's training at the ilT quotidiano Arena and Wednesday morning's training on the court, where it will still be without Sbertoli.
EIGHT WINS AND SEVEN LOSSES IN THE PREVIOUS RACE 2 SEMIFINALS Trentino Volleyball has already played a Game 2 of the Semifinal Play Off Scudetto fifteen times (out of the previous twenty total appearances), picking up eight wins and seven losses. The affirmations are related to the 3-0 in the 2008 series achieved in Rome, 3-2 in the 2009 series in Cuneo, 3-2 in the 2010 series in Macerata, 3-0 in the 2012 series in Frosinone against Latina, 3-2 achieved in Cuneo in 2013, 3-2 won at home against Perugia in 2018, 3-0 in Trento against Civitanova in that 2022 and 3-0 in Piacenza in 2023. Also in terms of numbers, Sunday will be the 40th match of the season for the yellow-blue (balance 32 wins and 77 losses), the 1,036th official match ever, and the 151st in the Play Off Scudetto, in which the via Trener club can boast 90 overall victories, of which 28 (out of 70 matches played) were won on the road.
THE OPPONENTS Mint Vero Volleyball is ready to host a Scudetto Play Off Semifinal match for the second time in its history: the only previous one is in fact referred to March 31, 2021, when it played Game 2 of that annual edition against Perugia, surrendering in four sets. As then, the goal of Eccheli's team is to get the tie-breaking point in the series to ensure another challenge in front of its home crowd eight days later. The external defeat on Easter Day confirmed the court factor and will force the Brianzoli to do the same in order not to find themselves already next Sunday back in Trento on the 0-2 situation. For the Lombardy club, which started to take part in the final table of the Italian top league since the 2016/17 season, Wednesday's will be the 24th match ever in the Play Off Scudetto (balance: 7 wins and 16 losses); as many as seven of these have been played against Trento, which has won in six cases (two in Monza). The only lineup doubt concerns the actual presence of Canadian outside hitter Maar, who was absent in Game 1 due to a facial contusion suffered in training on the eve of the match. His natural replacement, compatriot Loeppky, was the best scorer last Sunday with 20 points, two blocks and 64 percent in attack.
THE BACKGROUND With Wednesday's match Monza becomes the tenth opponent Trentino Volleyball has faced the most times in its men's history, joining Treviso at 33. The tally speaks in favor of the yellow-blues at 28-4, including seven previous matches in the Scudetto Play Offs: two in 2016 (quarterfinals, 2-0 win for Trento), four 2023 (quarterfinals, 3-1 win for Trento) and one in the current edition (3-0 win in game 1 of the semifinals). Never before this season have the two clubs faced each other in the penultimate act of the scoreboard; the only semifinal already on file is the one in this season's edition of the Coppa Italia (Jan. 27: 2-3 for Monza, then runner-up to Bologna). In the 2023/24 regular season, the two confrontations were won by Itas Trentino: by 3-1 on Nov. 19 at the ilT quotidiano Arena (partials of 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23) and by 3-0 in Monza on Feb. 3rd (scores of 12-25, 17-25, 17-25), right at the Opiquad Arena. In Brianza, Vero Volleyball has won only three of the total thirteen matches played against the yellow-blues: at the tie break on March 4, 2018 and on October 25, 2020, 3-1 on March 22, 2023 in Game 2 of the Play Off Scudetto quarterfinals. In the other ten instances, it was Trentino Volleyball that triumphed: seven times by 3-0, once by 3-1 and once by 3-2 (December 23, 2018 - still the longest challenge in the history of the via Trener club: 2h 45 minutes).
THE SERIES Itas Trentino ahead 1-0 in the Play Off Semifinal series to be played at the best of five games, by virtue of the 3-0 win accrued on March 31 at theT quotidiano Arena with partials of 27-25, 25-20, 25-22. Wednesday's Game 2, which could be the only one to be sustained in Brianza only in the event of two more victories by the yellow-blues between this match and the next one (Game 3) on Sunday, April 7 in Trento (5 p.m.). Should Mint Vero Volleyball win at least one of the next two challenges, Game 4 will also be required, which will be played again at the Opiquad Arena on Thursday, April 11 at 8:30 p.m. Whoever passes the round will find the winner of the Perugia-Milan semifinal, which sees the Umbrians ahead 1-0 (game 2 in Lombardy on Wednesday), in the Final (also best-of-five games, will kick off on April 18).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Gianluca Cappello, first whistle from Sortino (Syracuse), and Andrea Puecher, second referee from Rubano (Padua). For Cappello, in Serie A since 2004, eleventh match of the season referring to SuperLega teams; the last intersection with Trento is related to Jan. 14 (3-1 home win over Verona). By contrast, for Puecher, the most recent match with the yellow-blue colors as protagonists among the fifteen directed in the season refers to the four-set defeat in Perugia on February 25.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, enjoying simultaneous live coverage on TV, radio and the Internet. On the small screen it will be broadcast by RAI Sport HD, a channel present on the digital terrestrial platform (number 58) and on the "RAI Play" application.
Live commentary is planned on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volleyball. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found at www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio commentary in live streaming.
Also confirmed is the live video streaming on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv"; the service is pay-per-view. More information on the use of the same can be found at https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
On television, a summary will be aired on Friday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m., on RTTR - Trentino Volleyball's media partner.
On the Internet, point-to-point updates will be taken care of by the website of the Volleyball League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it itself, and will always be active on the Yellow-blue social networks ( www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office