Serie A - 1st Quarterfinals

Trento - San Giustino 3:0 MVP: Kaziyski
Cuneo - Verona 3:0 MVP: Mastrangelo
I read, Mastro played on reception, I want to see double block Volkov - Gigi and Gigi from pipe, he played from pipe today, I need to see it! ?
Nikolvo 7 aces, it was quite funny during 1 set 18:18, then I checked again and it was 23:18 and I wondered who has been on serve in Cuneo, it was quite obvious after i've seen statistics ?

Mastro played on reception ? I do not believe it: D Cuneo does not have to reserve the receiver? Parodi is injured, and others?

I watched the match Trento - San Giustino.
Trentino controlled the match. Very good input Sokolov. It is a pity that he did not play in the basic composition. He'll be wasted on the reserve.

Wout is still out of match '12', he had ankle injury during training few weeks ago, so they play now without Parodi and Wijsmans. Giuliani said they tried this week few different options and used the best for now. They played with Fortunato [good match, 100% in attack] and Volkov as MB, Grbic, Nikolov, Henno and Gigi with Patriarca as receivers. Perhaps Gigi is useful as much as Galic on reception, but double block Volkov - Gigi may be useful for next matches, in semi-final they will face Treviso or Macerata so if they want to reach final.

If you don't believe, here you have some photo's and maybe NightFox will make highlights from this match ;)



I would not worry that much about Sokolov, I bet he will be in first squad during WL and next season he will fight for real with Stokr for place in first squad in Trento.

I saw Cuneo-Verona (but i'm going to see monza-modena too, on sportube) and Cuneo was great!! Sometimes when Gigi and Volkov was near they also changed position with Volkov hitting as OH and Mastrangelo as MB. No chanche to Verona to understand themXD

and you have to consider that Parodi and also Wijsman count as italian players, and in Italy you can't have more than 4 (of 7, including the Libero) not-italian players on the court, so to use Galic they have to leave Volkov on the bench.. But it's also true that probabily is better having Gigi than Galic=) (also for the serve, the block...)

Now the surprise-effect is gone... Do you think their are going to experiment other options?

BTW, Verona didn't played a good match, in my opinion...

kk15 I think there's no time to try other options, because if they will win quarterfinal with Verona they will face strongest team - Macerata or Sisley, so now there is a time to get use to play in this squad till moment when Wijsmans will be able to play on high level and he need time to get disposition, he may be not ready even till V-Day. So if they gonna experiment more it may be worse for them. It depends on result of next match, if they will try one more time with this squad and they will win I don't think they will change it.
But Gigi and Volkov in first line as you say changing - great option, one of the best what Giuliani could do in this hard situation.

Yes, I agree with you!
but I'm wondering how they're going to use Mastrangelo when/if Wijsman will play again... BTW, Giuliani is a genius!
Noticed that the second Libero Montagna was wearing the blue uniform like the others, so he was ready to be used in reception instead of Mastrangelo if necessary=)

Today great match for Modena. They won 3-0 on Monza, that didn't play such good... In the second set they were twice a lot of point over Modena, and they let Modena came back in to the set with 3-4 spike errors in a row, a lot of mistake at serve in the final part of the set, failing 2 set-point... and losing 29-27.

Modena-Monza 3-0 (25-18; 29-27; 25-15)

Edit: sorry I hadn't noticed there's a different discussion for the 2nd quarterfinals

I would call him a genius if that tactic will give them victory in Serie A. If Wout will back to playing on high level, Mastro will probably back to his main position, but they may to use this just in case to make it more difficult for opponents.