Trento, 24 April 2024

Itas Trentino-Allianz Milano 0-3, the match report

Chronicle of game 3. The starting six of Itas Trentino was identical to the one seen four days earlier in Lombardy: Soli had to do without Lavia (still in the stands) and confirmed Sbertoli as setter (who met his crowd almost two months after the injury to his left hand), Rychlicki as opposite, Michieletto and Magalini as spikers, Podrascanin and Kozamernik as middle blockers, Laurenzano, fresh from his first call-up to the national team, as libero. Allianz Milan responded with Porro as setter, Reggers as opposite, Ishikawa and Mergarejo Hernandez in area 4, Loser and Vitelli in the middle, Catania as libero. Kaziyski is cleared to play but starts on the bench. The start was balanced, with the two teams taking turns leading the score (3-4, 6-5), before Ishikawa scored the first break on the counterattack (6-8) and Loser blocked Kozamernik (7-10). The hosts suffered the blow and then also suffered an ace by the Argentine middle blocker on 10-14, a scoring situation that advised the yellow-blue coach to interrupt the game. At resumption, it took a few more minutes for Trento to react, first with a great block by Kozamernik himself on Ishikawa, then a few seconds later with one by Rychlicki (on Reggers) for 16-17. Piazza in turn calls time out and gets the desired response, with the guests taking advantage of an error at the net by Kamil and a counter-attack by Ishikawa (17-20). Itas Trentino had one more gasp with the Slovenian middle blocker (who blocked Vitelli for 19-20), but then had to surrender at 22-25 (scored again by the Japanese spiker).
Itas Trentino tried to turn the page immediately after the change of court with a good impact in the second set by Kozamernik (another block) and Rychlicki; however, their attempt to escape (3-1 and 7-4) was almost immediately countered by their opponents with a block by Porro (8-7) and a block by Loser on Jan himself (10-10). After that, the two teams continued head-to-head towards the middle part of the partial, with Magalini more and more in the game; an ace of his was worth the overtaking (16-15), then an error by Reggers gave the +2 (18-16). The advantage was short-lived: Giulio was stopped by Porro's block again to tie the score at 21. The end was again dominated by Milan, with Mergarejo Hernandez stopping Rychlicki (21-23) and Ishikawa securing +2 (23-25).
In the third set, the Italian champions immediately suffered a heavy break signed by Porro's serves (2-4 and 2-6). Soli spent both time-outs at his disposal in the space of a few seconds, but did not get the desired reaction from his team (4-10); he then decided to insert Nelli, Acquarone, Cavuto and D'Heer, respectively in place of Rychlicki, Sbertoli, Magalini and Podrascanin. Oreste made the 8-14 ace that tried to revive the home team, but it was objectively too late as Allianz then conceded nothing more (10-18 and 12-21) and quickly took home this set too (already at 14-25) and the match, which puts the series 2-1 in their favour.

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