Trento, 02 November 2024

SuperLega, on Sunday in Porto s.Giorgio for the sixth round of regular season

The sixth round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2024/25 regular season starts this weekend. On Sunday, November 3, Itas Trentino will face their third away match of the tournament, challenging newly-promoted Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina at the PalaSavelli in Porto San Giorgio (province of Fermo). Starting time is scheduled for 6 PM, with live commentary on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming (paid) on the OTT platform VBTV.
ITAS TRENTINO After their first league loss of the season, sustained last Sunday at home against Perugia, the European Champion team arrives in the Marche region (where they will return in less than a month to face Civitanova on December 1) with the need to get back to winning ways to avoid losing ground to the leading pair, now composed of Piacenza and Sir Susa Vim (two points ahead).
"The SuperLega presents a challenge every regular season match that must always be approached with extreme caution, and Sunday's match certainly does not escape this rule," emphasized coach Fabio Soli during the match presentation. "We will be playing in an arena where we've never been before, and we'll face an opponent like Grottazzolina, which will surely try to put us in difficulty, fueled by the enthusiasm that newly promoted teams carry from the previous season. In two of the three home games played so far, Yuasa Battery has scored points, putting Monza and Padova under pressure for a long time. Therefore, we must approach this match with determination and the desire to impose our volleyball style immediately, aiming to bring quality to the game and consistency in all fundamentals."
Trentino Volley will arrive in Porto San Giorgio this evening, after a training session at ilT quotidiano Arena this morning. On this occasion, middle blocker Bela Bartha will also be with the team; although the Romanian player is still unable to play due to an abdominal injury sustained three weeks ago, he will still be listed on the roster and will do individual training on Sunday morning. This will be the 1,052nd official match in the history of the men's sector of Trentino Volley, the 599th in the regular season, and will see the yellow-blue team chasing their 732nd win ever, potentially the 351st away win.
THE OPPONENTS Despite not yet securing their first historic victory in SuperLega, Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina has already shown they can fully contend for survival in the early stages of the championship. Promoted from Serie A2 at the end of last season, the team led by Massimiliano Ortenzi (who also coached them in Serie B and then in Serie A3) has demonstrated the right character to move up the rankings twice, forcing Monza and Padova into tie-breaks in front of their home crowd. All this despite quickly losing outside hitter Fedrizzi (who took his first career steps with Trentino Volley, working his way up through the entire youth sector to the first team, collecting 75 appearances and 212 points between 2009 and 2015, winning five titles) and Serbian opposite Petkovic (formerly of Sora), both out with long-term injuries. The team's offensive leader has thus become Antonov (another former Trentino player, with 83 appearances and 406 points between 2015 and 2017), who has already scored sixty times and is the only undisputed starter for high balls, alongside players like Tatarov, Schack, and Cvanciger who continue to rotate. Setter Zhukouski has often found himself directing a team with a variable setup, but they rely on a great certainty at the net with Canadian Demyanenko, a pleasant surprise at the start of this tournament: he is the fifth server with 8 aces, the top blocker with 19 personal blocks, and the leading middle blocker in the overall performance rankings.
THE BACKGROUND Sunday’s match will be the very first official encounter between the two clubs, since they have never competed in the same league until this season. M&G Pallavolo Grottazzolina will thus become the fourth club from the Marche region that Trentino Volley has faced in its men’s division history. The other three clubs are Lube Volley (99 past meetings: 45 wins and 54 losses), Sira Falconara (4 past meetings, all won), and Pallavolo Loreto (2 matches, both won). Trentino Volley has played a total of 105 official matches against teams from the Marche region, recording 51 victories and 54 losses.
THE REFEREES The match will be officiated by Gianluca Cappello from Sortino (Siracusa, Serie A referee since 2004) and Giuseppe Curto from Gorizia (in role since 2013), marking the third time they will jointly referee a SuperLega match in their careers. This is Cappello’s second league match of the season, and he will officiate a Trentino match again exactly seven months after their last encounter (April 3, in Monza, where Trento won 3-1 in Game 2 of the Scudetto Playoff Semifinal). Curto, officiating his third regular season match of the 2024/25 men’s league, last encountered the yellow-blue team on April 20 (Milano vs. Trento (3-2), in Game 2 of the Third Place Final of the Scudetto Playoffs).
RADIO, INTERNET, AND TV The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley’s media partner. Regional frequencies for tuning into the network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where live streaming audio commentary will also be available.
A live video stream will also be available on the OTT platform VBTV. On television, a match recap will be aired on Monday, November 4, at 9:50 p.m., on RTTR – another media partner of Trentino Volley.
Online, point-by-point updates will be provided on the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and on Trentino Volley’s official website (www.trentinovolley.it). Real-time updates will also be available on Trentino Volley’s social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office