SuperLega: First match of 2025 at the Arena ilT quotidiano this Sunday

Trento,
January 18, 2025

SuperLega: first match of 2025 at the ilT quotidiano Arena this Sunday

This weekend marks the start of the seventeenth day of the regular phase of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2024/25. The Itas Trentino men’s team will play their first home match of this new year 2025 against Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento. The match will begin at 5 p.m., with live commentary on Radio Dolomiti and a paid live stream available on the OTT platform VBTV.
HERE ITAS TRENTO It’s been twenty-one days since the Jaune-Bleu last played at home (last match on December 29 against Cisterna), so they return to the field after a month of January full of away matches, all concluded successfully against Modena, Perugia and Brașov. The aim is to extend their winning streak to six matches, in order to remain in the race for first place in the standings, currently held by Perugia with a lead of four points (and one additional match played).
“We face one of the strongest teams in the league, Grottazzolina, who have won four of their last five matches and are showing a significantly higher level than in the first part of the season,” stressed the coach Fabio Soli during the presentation. “With the return of previously injured key players, Yuasa Battery is now a strong and confident team, performing well on both the receiving and serving fronts. We must approach this meeting with great caution, knowing that it is our third complicated match of a particularly demanding week. However, playing in front of our fans again will certainly give us an extra boost to counter fatigue. »
Itas Trentino will play again without the central Kozamernik, allowing the Romanian Bartha (MVP of the last big match against Perugia) to start. The team will finalize its preparations with training this afternoon and a final session on Sunday morning. This match will mark the 1,073rd match in club history for the men’s team and their twenty-ninth match of the season as European champions.
THE OPPONENTS Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina arrives in Trento reinvigorated since the start of the second half of the season. With twelve points taken from fifteen available in their first five matches of this phase, this recently promoted side are enjoying real momentum and now find themselves in the safe zone, a position which seemed distant after the first eleven matches. The experience gained at this level and the return of key players like Petkovic and Fedrizzi allowed coach Massimiliano Ortenzi’s team to capitalize on its strengths, particularly in serving (with 97 aces, fourth best total in direct points ) and in attack.
Among the individuals, the central Demyanenko stands out (statistically the best central of the tournament with 34 winning blocks), the libero Marchisio (the second best overall receiver) and Fedrizzi, who also proved his value in serving. The Trentino-born winger will be particularly expected for Sunday’s match, having started his career with the yellow-blue club, where he completed all levels of training before reaching the first team, totaling 75 appearances and scoring 212 points between 2009 and 2015. He won a World Club Championship title (2009), a Champions League (2010), an Italian Championship (2015), a Cup of Italy (2010), an Italian Super Cup (2013) and a Junior League (2011). Oleg Antonov is another former player who wore the Trentino Volley jersey from 2015 to 2017, with 83 appearances and 406 points, also participating in a Champions League final, an Italian Championship and an Italian Cup without winning a title.
PREVIOUS MATCHES Sunday’s match will be the second official meeting between the two clubs, having so far only one recorded duel: the first leg played on November 3, 2024 at the PalaSavelli in Porto San Giorgio, where Itas Trentino won 3- 1 (set scores: 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-23) with Michieletto leading the scorers and MVP (25 points). M&G Pallavolo Grottazzolina is the fourth club from the Marche region that Trentino Volley faces in the men’s sector; the other three are Lube Volley (101 matches: 46 wins and 55 losses), Sira Falconara (4 matches, all won) and Pallavolo Loreto (2 matches, all won). In total, there are 108 official matches against Marche teams, with 53 victories and 55 defeats.
Grottazzolina will always occupy a special place in the history of Trentino volleyball; it was the opponent of the very first match in Serie A for a team from the province of Trento: on September 28, 1997, Itas Btb-Videx Grottazzolina 0-3 played at the Gardolo hall. The squads of these two teams included Yaroslav Antonov (Oleg’s father) as a striker for the visitors and Riccardo Michieletto, the current Team Manager of Trentino Volley and father of Alessandro, who was then the main striker for Mezzolombardo .
THE REFEREES Match management will be entrusted to Stefano Caretti (from Guidonia – Rome, in Serie A since 2016) and Maurizio Canessa (from Bari, in office since 2009), officiating together for the second time in SuperLega. Caretti has already refereed Trentino Volley six times, and only once at the ilT quotidiano Arena (Trento-Vibo 3-1, coincidentally on January 19, 2020); the last time was in the victory at Cisterna in four sets in the first round (September 29, 2024). For Canessa, this will be the eleventh match managed under the yellow-blue colors; the last time dates back to December 22 in Taranto (3-1 victory). The Apulian referee previously officiated four matches in Trento, all of which saw the home side win.
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio comments live by streaming. Live video streaming on OTT platform VBTV has also been confirmed; the service is paid. On television, a summary will be broadcast Monday January 20 at 9:40 p.m. on RTTR – media partner of Trentino Volley. On the internet, point by point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) as well as on the same Trentino Volley website and will always be active on the yellow-blue social networks (www .trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram, www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS The match is included in the 2024/25 season subscription. It is possible to buy tickets for the single match at any time online or directly on Sunday afternoon at the ticket offices of the ilT quotidiano Arena, which will open at 4 p.m., just like the entrances to the venue.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press service