Itas Trentino Trento and Sir Susa Vim Perugia won five-set battles with their semifinal opponents – Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza and Cucine Lube Civitanova, respectively – in the Italian men’s SuperLega Credem Banca playoffs over the weekend to double their leads in their series and get to within a win from a spot in the championship final. Meanwhile, the second leg of the fifth-place playoffs was played, with Rana Verona and Valsa Group Modena achieving their second wins.
Superlega 2024/25
Five-set wins double Trentino and Sir’s leads in SuperLega semis
Recap of Italian SuperLega weekend playoff matches
Published 07:29, 14 Apr 2025
Oleh Plotnytskyi fired seven aces towards Sir’s victory in Civitanova
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After the nail-biting five-set home victory over Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza the previous weekend, regular season winners Itas Trentino Trento managed to score another one as they visited their opponents on Sunday evening for the second leg of the best-of-three semifinal playoff. With their outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto on fire again, the reigning European champions put together a 3-2 (27-25, 15-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9) win in front of three and a half thousand spectators in Piacenza and took a 2-0 lead in the series.
Michieletto topped the match charts with 24 points. He spiked at a 62% success rate, fired two aces and put up one kill block towards the victory, thus earning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) recognition. Trentino’s Luxembourgish opposite Kamil Rychlicki added another 19 points, including two blocks and an ace, while outside Daniele Lavia finished with 11 points. As many as five players reached the double digits on Gas Sales’ side, headed by Canadian outside Stephen Maar with 18 points. His Turkish cross-court teammate Ramazan Efe Mandiraci and opposite Yuri Romano scored 16 points each. Middle blockers Robertlandy Simon of Cuba and Gianluca Galassi put away 14 and 10 points, respectively, with the latter raising an impressive five kill blocks.
“This game was very similar to the one we played last Sunday in Trento and it was just as beautiful,” Michieletto commented. “We are happy with the result and with the performance, because it was absolutely not easy to come to Piacenza and win again. It was just a shame about the nervousness that characterized the tie-breaker, but for the rest it was a beautiful show.”
Trentino will host the third-leg match of this semifinal playoff on Thursday, April 17.
On Saturday evening, defending champions Sir Susa Vim Perugia persevered through a five-set battle with their hosts Cucine Lube Civitanova in front of over four thousand fans on the stands at the Eurosuole Forum and also edged further ahead in their series with a 2-0 lead. Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara delivered a match-high 23 points, including the match winner, towards a 3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 15-10) victory, but it was his Ukrainian teammate Oleh Plotnytskyi, who stole the show with seven serving aces towards a 15-point tally and the MVP award. Three consecutive aces by Plotnytskyi at the start of the fifth set gave Sir a 3-0 lead and heavily tilted the balance Sir’s way. Sir’s other outside, Kamil Semeniuk of Poland, also finished with 15 points, including three aces, while Argentinean middle Agustin Loser chipped in with 12 points. Outside Mattia Bottolo and Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija scored 17 points apiece for Lube. Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov finished with 11.
“We expected a match like this. After game one, they had room for improvement and took the right countermeasures,” said Plotnytskyi. “Today they played very well. It was a very tough match and well done to us for staying in the game! We wasted some opportunities but today the team won. The serves at the start of the tiebreak were important, but today they also served very well and, I say this as a receiver, their serve was very powerful.”
Sir will entertain Lube in Perugia for the third leg of the series on Wednesday, April 16.
The second leg of the fifth-place playoffs was also played over the weekend.
On Sunday, Valsa Group Modena achieved an important straight-set win at Allianz Milan to top the current standings on 6 points and a 2-0 win-loss record, leaving their opponents in fifth place on 0 and 0-2. Modena’s Cuban outside Jose Gutierrez contributed a match-high 16 points, including three aces and two blocks, towards a 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 26-24) sweep.
Rana Verona also improved to 6 and 2-0 in second place after Saturday’s 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-22) home victory over Cisterna Volley. Malian opposite Noumory Keita led the way with 14 points for the winners, while his French counterpart Theo Faure put away a match-high 15 for Cisterna, who dropped to fourth place on 3 and 1-1.
Cisterna were overtaken in the table by Sonepar Padova Padua, who climbed to third place, also on 3 and 1-1, after a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-17) shutout of their visitors Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina on Sunday. 19-year-old Israeli outside Shay Mayo Liberman aced three times, while opposite Tommaso Stefani raised three blocks, as the two Padova players shared the top scorer honors of the match with 15 points each. Grottazzolina trail in sixth place on 0 and 0-2.
The third leg of the fifth place playoffs will be held on April 18 and 19.
SuperLega Credem Banca 2024-2025 semifinal playoffs, 3rd leg:
Apr 16, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Sir Susa Vim Perugia v Cucine Lube Civitanova
Apr 17, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Itas Trentino Trento v Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza
SuperLega Credem Banca 2024-2025 fifth place playoffs, 3rd leg:
Apr 18, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Allianz Milan v Sonepar Padova Padua
Apr 19, 17:30 local (15:30 UTC): Valsa Group Modena v Cisterna Volley
Apr 19, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina v Rana Verona
