Trento, 30 November 2024

SuperLega: on Sunday match in Civitanova Marche for the last game day of the first round

The tenth round of the regular season of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2024/25 has just begun this weekend. On Sunday, December 1st, the top-ranked Itas Trentino will be engaged in the day's big match, facing Cucine Lube at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova Marche. For both teams, it is the last commitment of the first round, having already played on Wednesday evening the match valid for the eleventh and final day of the ascending phase. Starting time is scheduled for 6 PM: live commentary on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming (paid) on the OTT platforms VBTV and DAZN.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The appointment in the Marche region opens a December that, until Sunday, the 22nd, will see the European Champions always on the move, also facing rapid succession of away games in Lisbon, Uberlândia (Brazil), Cagliari, and Taranto.
“We face the last commitment of the first round fully aware that we have a very difficult task ahead of us, but we want to complete this first phase of the championship in the best possible way,” said coach Fabio Soli during the presentation of the match. “The bar is raised significantly because we will challenge the team that has so far had the best home record, losing only one set in five matches played in front of their own crowd. Cucine Lube is a very physical team, with extremely high numbers in serving, blocking, and attacking, superior to ours. We will need to perform well in the back row and particularly in reception, to then try to have a smooth side-out. With our serve, we will aim to be incisive to limit their attacking options and facilitate our blocking. We are going to Civitanova Marche to play our best volleyball, focusing solely and exclusively on this match”.
For this match and all those remaining in 2024, the coaching staff will have to do without Jan Kozamernik (who underwent surgery for a cervical disc hernia in Piacenza on Thursday morning), but they can count on the progressive recovery of his teammate Bela Bartha, who will be regularly available. For Trentino Volley, the match in the Marche will be the fifteenth of the season (with a record of twelve wins and two losses), the 1,059th overall for the men's sector, and will see the Club from via Brennero seeking its 739th victory ever, potentially the 354th away win (out of 572 games).
THE OPPONENTS Coming off a midweek victory in Porto San Giorgio in the Marche derby with Grottazzolina, Cucine Lube Civitanova awaits the visit of the European Champions with an enviable home record. In the first five regular season 2024/25 matches played at the Eurosuole Forum, the biancorossi have left their opponents with only one set (against Padova in their debut), winning 3-0 in quick succession against Monza, Cisterna, Piacenza, and Modena. The perfect home performance has propelled the team coached by Medei (already an opponent of Trento last season with Resovia) to third place in the standings; the three points gained on Wednesday evening at Yuasa Battery's field have allowed them to overtake Gas Sales Bluenergy. The first ten appearances in SuperLega have shown how this Cucine Lube team is very incisive in serving (66 aces achieved – 1.83 per set, only Perugia has done better) and blocking, where they boast an average of points per set similar to Trento (2.28 to 2.29). Among the individuals, it is worth noting the great start to the season by the opposite Lagumdzija, who immediately found excellent synergy with the young setter Boninfante: the Turk is the first attacker for weighted average in the tournament (closely followed by Michieletto and Rychlicki) and also tops the aces ranking (20). Sunday's match will be the first as an ex for the middle blocker Marko Podrascanin, an extraordinary protagonist of the last three gialloblù successes (Supercup 2021, Championship 2023, and Champions League 2024) with 1,375 points in 187 official matches played and 51 appearances as Captain.
THE BACKGROUND Lube Volley is absolutely the opponent that Trentino Volley has faced the most times in its nearly twenty-five years of history; the match on Sunday will also be the one-hundredth official encounter between the two clubs. The rivalry has taken place in every type of Italian competition and, on several occasions, in international arenas as well (nine times in the Champions League and once in the Club World Championship), resulting in ten instances where a title was at stake, as the two clubs faced each other in the Scudetto Finals of 2012, 2017, and 2023, the Coppa Italia Finals of 2012, 2013, and 2017, the Supercoppa in 2009, 2013, and 2017, and the Club World Championship in 2018.
The overall record favors Lube with 54 wins to 45, but Trento has won seven of their last ten encounters and three out of four matches played last season. The very first match took place at Fontescodella in Macerata exactly twenty-four years ago: December 8, 2000, with Lube winning 3-1. The most recent direct confrontation occurred on March 21, 2024, where Lube won at home in a tie-break during the return semifinal of the Champions League.
Trentino Volley has won thirteen out of forty-five matches played at Lube's home venue; however, only four of these victories were recorded at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova Marche, which has been Lube's home since late in the 2014/15 season.
THE REFEREES The match will be officiated by Alessandro Cerra (from Bologna, in Serie A since 2014) and Andrea Puecher (from Rubano – Padova, in Serie A since 2003 and international since 2014), marking their seventh joint match in SuperLega during their careers. Cerra is officiating his sixth league match this season and will encounter Trento again after the match in Milan on October 13 (where Trento won 3-1); he has previously refereed two Lube-Itas Trentino matches, with each team winning once in Civitanova Marche. Puecher is officiating his seventh match of the season in the regular season (one of which involved Trentino Volley: a 3-0 win over Taranto on October 6) and has already refereed the matchup between the two clubs five times (with Trento winning three times and Civitanova twice).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be covered live by Radio Dolomiti, the media partner of Trentino Volley. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the live radio commentary via streaming.
Live video streaming will also be confirmed on two distinct OTT platforms: VBTV and DAZN; both services require a subscription.
On television, a summary will air on Monday, December 2, at 9:40 PM on RTTR - the media partner of Trentino Volley.
Online, point-by-point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and the official Trentino Volley site (www.trentinovolley.it), with continuous updates available on their yellow-blue social media channels (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram, and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office