For the 7th time in their history, the 3rd time in a row, Cucine Lube Civitanova took Scudetto, the trophy intended for the best team in the Italian Men’s Volleyball Championship.
It’s Cucine Lube Civitanova who, as in the two previous two Italian Championships, won the Scudetto. However, this was the most complex one and the most unexpected one to notch considering injuries of several pillars (one of them, Osmany Juantorena, didn’t play in the playoffs at all) and infections the team of Gianlorenzo Blengini had to face this season. But Lube proved to be stronger than everything, sinking and then rising up repeatedly, first during the regular season and then during the semi-finals of the 2021/22 SuperLega Credem Banca against Itas Trentino in which they trailed 0-2 in the series. It was concluded with the most difficult opponents, the regular-season winners Sir Safety Conad Perugia who had dominated up to here. But Lube was the one that dominated when needed, up until it placed the ultimate knockout blow at the right moment – in Game 4 of the finals (3-0).
Out of all matches of the final series, the ‘Block Devils’ had the least chances in this one tonight, even fewer chances compared to Game 2 which they also lost in straight sets. In Game 4, Perugia were in play only in the opening set when they had 12-9. Everything else in the encounter went by Lube’s beat, played by Ivan Zaytsev in front of a sold-out Eurosole Forum (3,843 spectators). He scored 13 points. Simone Anzani set up 4 blocks.
2021/22 SuperLega Credem Banca – playoff finals:
