Lube Macerata
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 6, Sir Safety Perugia 4, Casa Modena 4, Diatec Trentino 3*, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 3, Exprivia Molfetta 3, Calzedonia Verona 3, Copra Elior Piacenza 3, Altotevere Cittа di Castello 3, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 1, Andreoli Latina 0*, CMC Ravenna 0.
* 1 game in hand: Diatec Trentino, Andreoli Latina
Altotevere Cittа di Castello – Calzedonia Verona
Saturday’s game is an unprecedented one between Cittа di Castello and Verona. Both teams have grabbed one win and one loss so far. Van Walle and co want to forget about the poor defeat against the other promoted side Molfetta, while Verona are keen to add up to their brilliant 3-1 win over Cuneo.
Casa Modena – Copra Elior Piacenza
Rai Sport will broadcast the derby between Modena and Piacenza, respectively with 4 and 3 points in the table. The home side has not won this fixture in the PalaCasaModena arena since October 2011. Last season, their only win over Piacenza came in the Italian cup quarter-finals at the tie-break. Piacenza obtained its first league win last week against Vibo but lost in the Champions League in France. Young Vettori needs one point to reach a 100 in the league.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 27 (16-11 Piacenza)
Angelo Lorenzetti (coach Casa Modena): “Piacenza is Piacenza. And this year, they’re even more stronger. They have a lot of quality and a deep bench. We have to look for a breakthrough in each set. This season, we told ourselves we’d forget about the name on our shirt and we’d forget about the one of the opponent too. That’s what we’ll have to do on Sunday. Playing one point at a time. I am very happy with my players, they work hard in the gym. Vettori? A young boy I respect, since I’ve known him he’s matured a lot. On his debuts he already reminded me of Cuminetti and today, he reminds me even more of him”.
Hristo Zlatanov (Copra Elior Piacenza): “It all depends on our game, if we play well, we’ll have more of a chance. We’re not having the best of period, we still have an awful lot of work on to be physically in good shape but looking at the few games played, I can see some improvement.Game after game we’re getting better. We need time and games”.
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Andreoli Latina
Latina’s only win in Cuneo came in 2005, and their coach was the current Roberto Santilli, who had taken over in 2001 when the club was in the A2. He immediately obtained promotion and came back from January 2004 to October 2005. Still without a point, but with a game in hand, Sottile and co will face a team needing to redeem itself as they only count one point so far. And they will play home, with their demanding crowd.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Sir Safety Perugia
Serbian invasion in Macerata. Stankovic and Podrascanin for the home side, Petric, Atanasijevic, Mitic, Vujevic, coach Kovac, Cupkovic for Perugia. The two teams are aiming high this season. Macerata is top of the league with maximum points and they are perfect in the Champions League too. In the meantime, Perugia managed two tie-break victories over Cuneo and Modena.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (Macerata won both).
Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Another important test for us against Perugia, unbeaten in the league. They have many Serbians and the coach, it will be nice to play against them, but we’ll have to be focused, they have an excellent team. We’re coming off four wins between league and Champions League and to keep our winning streak going we’ll need maximum effort”.
Simone Buti (Sir Safety Perugia): “We’ll be up against a team built to win it all. It is one of the 2-3 strongest teams of the league, they have quality in every position, and they proved it in the first two rounds. But I think we have proved that we can play too. This will obviously be a tough one, but we’ll try to play at our best, as a team with competitive spirit and character, two factors that helped us a lot when we were behind in the scoreboard in the first two games”.
CMC Ravenna – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
Ravenna is looking for its first win of the season, and its first ever against Vibo Valentia. They’re hoping to have setter Toniutti back in time. As for Forni and co, they intend on making it 5 on 5 against Ravenna.
Diatec Trentino – Exprivia Molfetta
First meeting between the Italian champions and the newly promoted Molfetta, both on 3 points but Trento with a game in hand. The southerners will have no fear, as they’re coming off a clear 3-0 win over Cittа di Castello. Trento is on a three-game winning streak, Champions League included. Piscopo is five points away from the 1500 in regular season and needs just one block to reach the 400 between league and cup.
To read more about this competition click on Italian National Championship 2013/2014 coverage page.
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You can watch videos from this competition on WoVVIDEO.
