Trento, 18 January 2025

SuperLega, on Sunday the first match of 2025 at ilT quotidiano Arena

The seventeenth round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2024/25 regular season kicks off this weekend. The Itas Trentino men's team will host their first home match of the year 2025 against Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento. The match is set to begin at 5 PM, with live commentary on Radio Dolomiti and paid live streaming available on the OTT platform VBTV.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Twenty-one days after their last home match (December 29 against Cisterna), the yellow-blue team returns to play at home, following a January filled with away games, all successfully completed against Modena, Perugia, and Brasov. The goal is to extend their winning streak to six matches to remain competitive for the top spot in the standings, currently held by Perugia with a four-point lead (and one additional game played).
"We are facing one of the strongest teams in the league, Grottazzolina, which has won four out of five matches in the second half of the season and shows a level significantly different from that of the first half," emphasized coach Fabio Soli during the presentation. "Thanks to the recovery of some key players who were previously injured, Yuasa Battery is now a solid and confident team, strong in serving and reception. We must approach this match with great care, knowing it represents our third challenging appointment in a particularly demanding week. However, playing again in front of our fans will surely give us an extra boost to help us cope with fatigue."
Itas Trentino will again play without central player Kozamernik, allowing Romanian Bartha (MVP of last Sunday’s big match against Perugia) to start. The team will finalize their preparations with training sessions this afternoon and a final practice on Sunday morning. This match will mark the 1,073rd game in the club's history for the men's team and their twenty-ninth match of the season as European Champions.
THE OPPONENTS Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina arrives in Trento rejuvenated since the start of the second half of the season. With twelve points from fifteen available in their first five matches of this phase, this newly promoted team has gained momentum and is now fully in the safety zone, a position that seemed far off after their first eleven games. Increased experience at this level and the return of key players like Petkovic and Fedrizzi have allowed coach Massimiliano Ortenzi's team to capitalize on their strengths, particularly in serving (with 97 aces, making them fourth in direct points) and attacking.
Among individual players, central Demyanenko stands out (statistically the best central player in the tournament with 34 winning blocks), libero Marchisio (second overall receiver), and Fedrizzi, who has also proven his worth in serving. The Trentino-born spiker will be especially anticipated for Sunday’s match as he began his career with the yellow-blue club, completing all levels of youth play before reaching the first team, where he made 75 appearances and scored 212 points from 2009 to 2015. He has won a Club World Championship (2009), a Champions League (2010), an Italian Championship (2015), an Italian Cup (2010), an Italian Supercup (2013), and a Junior League (2011). Oleg Antonov is another former player who wore Trentino Volley’s jersey from 2015 to 2017, accumulating 83 appearances and 406 points while also competing in a Champions League final, Italian Championship, and Italian Cup without winning any titles.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES Sunday's match will be the second official meeting between the two clubs, who have only one match on record: the first leg played on November 3, 2024, at the PalaSavelli in Porto San Giorgio, where Itas Trentino won 3-1 (set scores 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-23) with Michieletto as the top scorer and MVP (25 points). M&G Pallavolo Grottazzolina is the fourth club from the Marche region that Trentino Volley has faced in its history related to the men's sector; the other three are Lube Volley (101 matches: 46 wins and 55 losses), Sira Falconara (4 matches, all won), and Pallavolo Loreto (2 matches, both won). In total, the official matches against teams from the Marche region are 108, with 53 wins and 55 losses.
Grottazzolina will always have a special place in the history of Trentino volleyball; it was the opponent in the absolute debut match in Serie A for a team from the province of Trento: on September 28, 1997, Itas Btb-Videx Grottazzolina 0-3 played at the Gardolo gym. The rosters of those two teams included Yaroslav Antonov (Oleg's father) as the opposite hitter for the guests and Riccardo Michieletto, the current Team Manager of Trentino Volley and Alessandro's father, who was then the main hitter of Mezzolombardo.
THE REFEREES The management of the match will be entrusted to Stefano Caretti (from Guidonia - Rome, in Serie A since 2016) and Maurizio Canessa (from Bari, in the role since 2009), officiating their second joint SuperLega match in their careers. Caretti has already refereed Trentino Volley in six circumstances, and only once at the ilT quotidiano Arena (Trento-Vibo 3-1, coincidentally on January 19, 2020); the last occasion was the victory in Cisterna in four sets of the first round (September 29, 2024). For Canessa, this will be the eleventh match with the yellow-blue colors; the last time was on December 22 in Taranto (3-1 victory). The Apulian referee has previously officiated four matches in Trento, all of which were marked by victories of the local team.
RADIO AND INTERNET  The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. The 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.The live video streaming on the OTT VBTV platform has also been confirmed; the service is paid for both. On television, a summary will be broadcast on Monday, January 20 at 21:40, on RTTR – media partner of Trentino Volley.On the internet, point-by-point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and by the same www.trentinovolley.it and will always be active on the yellow-blue Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram, and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETING The match is included in the 2024/25 season ticket. It is possible to purchase tickets for the single match at any time online by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-grottazzolina/258089, or directly on Sunday afternoon at the ilT quotidiano Arena ticket offices, which will be open from 4 pm, the same time the venue's entrances will open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office