Semi Finals – Day Three

We’re at that time of the year when there are big games on virtually every day.  Last night was the second day of the Italian League semi finals.  In contrast to Poland where they play H-H-A-A-H, Italy sticks with the tried and tested H-A-H-A-H, and so it was the turn of Macerata and Treviso to play host.

Treviso took full advantage to beat Cuneo 3-0 and even the series at 1-1.  The Italian press with typical understatement described it as a debacle from the point of view of Cuneo.  Looking at the stats it is easy to confirm that opinion.  The player of the match was Ricardo although the press went on to say that it was a great team performance from Treviso.  It also adds mention that Alessandro Benetton (Sisley is a company within the Benetton group) was in attendance with his wife for the first time.

The Macerata-Trento seems to have been a debacle from teams, with Trento just coming out on top and moving to just one win from V-Day.  Among the standout performances (according to volleyball.it), were the performance of the Trento block/defence, with middle blocker Sala winning the MVP.  Having seen Trento a few times this season, their block/defence is really incredible.  Really big guys, who are incredibly disciplined and prepared.  Their double blocking is so good, it hasn’t even made the textbook yet.  In this match they made 15 blocks and forced 12 attacks errors (see here).  That works out at over 20% total errors and 10% direct errors.  10% errors is virtually unheard of in Italy where reducing errors often takes a higher priority to taking risks, in complete contrast to Germany, but that’s a story for another time.