Super Lega 2021 - News

Srecko Lisinac in action

Srecko Lisinac in action

A brilliant performance by Serbian star Srecko Lisinac inspired Itas Trentino Trento on the way to an emphatic straight-set victory in one of the three midweek SuperLega Credem Banca fixtures played in Italy on Wednesday, ahead of the big Del Monte Coppa Italia SuperLega Final Four weekend, in which Trentino are among the protagonists.

The Serbian middle hit at a perfect 100% success rate in attack and delivered three aces (without any errors in serving) and four kill blocks towards a 16-point tally to earn the MVP nomination in his team’s 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-20) home win over Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia.

Lisinac’s 20-year-old Italian teammate Alessandro Michieletto produced the match high of 18 points, including four blocks, while opposite Daniele Lavia also reached the double digits with 11 points. Tonno Callipo’s international stars Yuji Nishida of Japan and Christian Fromm of Germany scored 11 points apiece too.

“During the game we were very concentrated and these three important points were well deserved. We are very happy with the victory, but now we have to think about Bologna,” Lisinac said after the match, referring to Trentino’s upcoming cup semifinal against Allianz Milano on Saturday.

Trentino improved to a 16-6 win-loss record and 51 points in the third place in the standings, but are still behind second-placed Cucine Lube Civitanova who also had a midweek three-pointer on Wednesday to up their record to 17-3 and 51 points.

With outside Ricardo Lucarelli acing four times, Lube claimed a 3-1 (17-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-20) home win over Top Volley Cisterna. The Brazilian star added a kill block and 15 spiking points at a 50% success rate to lead Lube’s scorers on a total of 20 points and get the MVP award. His young Cuban colleague Marlon Yant also fired four aces in the match towards a total tally of 12 points. An excellent performance by Argentinean setter Luciano De Cecco resulted in high efficiency of Lube’s middle-of-the-net offence with both middle blockers, Italy’s Simone Anzani and Cuba’s Robertlandy Simon, reaching 80+ per cent spiking success. Croatian opposite Petar Dirlic was the best scorer of the game with 24 points for Top Volley Cisterna.

Lube have more catching up to do this week as another postponed SuperLega match, a big away clash with fourth-placed Leo Shoes PerkinElmer Modena, is scheduled to be played on Saturday.

“The beginning was difficult, as Cisterna made a good start. In my opinion, having won this challenge was very important, because we managed to get out of a very complicated situation. From the second set on, we played better, starting to make the right choices. This was a show of strength. We will play a big match in Modena. I will see my friends playing there, and it will be a good game for everyone, for the standings, for the score, at a place where it is good to play. We hope to return with a positive result.” Ricardo Lucarelli, outside hitter of Cucine Lube Civitanova

Once again, bottom-placed Consar RCM Ravenna showed that they were capable of winning sets against stronger teams, but failed to achieve their first win of the season as they hosted Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza on Wednesday. With French playmaker Antoine Brizard on fire not only in organising Piacenza’s offence, but also in spiking himself (four points at 80% success) and serving (two aces), the visitors managed a tight 3-1 (26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 25-20) win and can now focus on their cup semifinal against Sir Safety Conad Perugia on Saturday.

The team from Piacenza are seventh in the current league standings on 10-12 and 31 points.

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