Trento, 29 January 2025

2025 CEV Cup, on Thursday at the ilT quotidiano Arena (8:30 pm) the Play Off away match

The first month of the year 2025 concludes with an international commitment for Trentino Itas: on Thursday, January 30th, at the ilT Quotidiano Arena in Trento, the European Champion team will host the Romanian side CSM Corona Brasov for the return leg of the Play-Offs (the round preceding the quarterfinals). The match is scheduled to start at 8:30 PM, with live coverage on Radio Dolomiti.
HERE IS TRENTINO ITAS The last official match of January presents a particularly important challenge for the yellow-and-blue team; a spot in the top eight teams of the second-tier continental competition is at stake. To secure it, thanks to their 3-1 victory in the first leg two weeks ago in Romania, they need to win at least two sets.
"Thursday's match represents an opportunity for us to get back on track in an emotionally delicate moment," said coach Fabio Soli "Returning to the court immediately will allow us to shake off the aftermath of the Coppa Italia semifinal loss to Lube and focus on the future, confident in our abilities, and aiming for our upcoming goals. Corona Brasov showed us in the first leg that they are a solid team, ready to challenge us, so we must be fully prepared."
Trentino Itas will complete their preparations with training sessions this evening and Thursday morning at the ilT Quotidiano Arena, which, despite the name changes (previously PalaTrento and BLM Group Arena), will host the 85th international match for Trentino Volley. The record is 71 wins and 13 losses, with only three of these losses in the CEV Cup, the most recent dating back nearly ten years to April 4, 2015, when they lost 1-3 to Dinamo Moscow in the first leg of the 2015 final, which they eventually lost in the golden set.
THE OPPONENTS CSM Corona Brasov comes to Trento to play the most important match in its recent history. The volleyball section of the sports club, which also has teams in football, handball, and ice hockey, was founded only in 2022 but immediately achieved great results: promotion to Romania's top league in 2023 and winning the national title in 2024, defeating Galati. For this reason, they entered the preliminary rounds of the 2024-2025 Champions League, just missing out on the group stage after eliminating Bosnian side OK Radnik Bijeljina in the first round, Swiss team Schönenwerd in the second, and losing to Olympiacos in the third. Re-entered in the 2025 CEV Cup, they advanced past Novi Sad in the round of 16 and Tallin in the quarterfinals, before meeting Trentino Itas for the crucial match that would secure the most significant international result in their history. Coach Laurentiu Lica’s squad (former opposite with experience in the French league) includes Argentine setter Federico Arquez, Azerbaijani opposite Andrey Melnikov, outside hitters Ewoud Gommans (Dutch), Filip Kovacevic, Dusan Stojsavljevic, and Davide Kovac (all Serbian), and middle blockers Tudor Magdas and Stefan Lupu, along with libero Vlad Alexandru Kantor, the only three Romanian players on the team. Australian outside hitter Beau James Graham sometimes features in the lineup, as he did in the first leg. In the Romanian league, they currently sit in second place, behind Dinamo Bucharest (former team of Bela Bartha), with whom they lost 1-3 at home last Saturday.
CSM Corona Brasov Roster: 1. Augusto Renato Colito (opposite), 4. Ioan Bacila (libero), 6. Ewoud Gommans (outside hitter), 7. Murilo Radke (setter), 8. Tudor Magdas (middle blocker), 11. Andrey Melnikov (opposite), 12. Beau James Graham (middle blocker), 14. Stefan Lupu (middle blocker), 16. Federico Arquez (setter), 17. Vlad Alexandru Kantor (libero), 18. Andrei Laza (middle blocker), 19. Filip Kovacevic (outside hitter), 20. Dusan Stojsavljevic (outside hitter), 21. Nicholas Butler (setter), 24. Davide Kovac (outside hitter).
Coach: Laurentiu Lica.
ITAS TRENTINO WILL BE QUALIFIED FOR PLAY OFFS ONLY IF…
To get through the round and enter the quarterfinals, the Gialloblù team needs to win at least two sets; thanks to the success (3-1) in the first leg, the European Champions will in fact also be able to lose in the tie break to avoid the golden set hypothesis against Brasov, which will therefore be played only in the event of a victory in a maximum of four partials of the Romanians.
The rules are in fact the same ones used in the CEV Champions League Play Offs. Whoever passes the round will face in the quarter-finals the best second among the third-place finishers of the Champions League group stage: currently competing for this position are Maaseik and Roeselare (Belgium), Fenerbahce (Turkey), Saint Nazaire and Chaumont (France); Tonight, with the conclusion of the round, there will be the verdict. In the final scoreboard of the 2025 CEV Cup, meanwhile, there is already a qualifier for the quarterfinals, Resovia (Poland, who eliminated Pafiakos Pafos with a double victory), while tonight two more matches are played: Tours-Amriswil (first leg 3-1) and Ziraat Ankara-Las Palmas (first leg 3-2).
THE BACKGROUND Wednesday’s match will be the second match in history between the two clubs, who have only the first leg played on 15th January in Romania on their record, won by Trentino Itas 1-3, with scores of 25-21, 17-25, 21-25, 23-25 and Rychlicki as best scorer (18 points). Trentino Volleyball has a total of seven previous matches against Romanian teams, all positive, taking into account not only the four victories obtained in Romania (the other three: 3-0 in Zalau on 8th December 2010, 3-1 in Craiova on 13th January 2015 and 3-1 in Galati on 13th November 2024), but also the three home matches played on 13th December 2010 (3-0 against Zalau), on 22nd January 2015 (3-1 against Craiova in the return match) and on 20th November 2024 (3-0 against Galati).
THE REFEREES The match will be refereed by Lukas Kralovic, first Slovakian referee from Bratislava, and by Philippe Enkerli from Bern, Switzerland. Neither of them has refereed before a Trentino Volley match.
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino
Volley’s media partner, from 8:35 pm. Frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it is also possible to follow the radio news live and the report of the match also in streaming, in the section “on air”. To follow the evolution point by point of the match, it will be possible to consult the official website of the CEV at www.cev.eu/match-centres/2025-european-cups/cev-volleyball-cup-2025-men/ccm-70-trentino-itas-v-csm-corona-brasov/, which will provide the live score, or that of Trentino Volley www.trentinovolley.it which will also offer the chronicle set by set a few minutes after the conclusion of each individual partial. Moreover, detailed updates will be managed by the website of the Volleyball League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it itself, and always active on gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKET OFFICE The match is included in the 2024/25 season ticket. Tickets for the single match can be purchased at any time on the internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-brasov/258736. Tickets will also be available on Thursday at the ticket office of the ilT quotidiano Arena, active from 7:30 pm, at the same time as the entrances to the arena will also be opened.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office