Series B2. Pallavolo San Giorgio awaits Riccione for the first leg of the play offs. First act of the promotion play-offs towards the B1 series by the Piacenza team who will challenge Lasersoft Riccione on Saturday 18 May. The first round ended at the top of the standings, after an epic comeback which allowed us to gain 35 points in the return leg, the result of 12 victories and only one defeat (reaching the tiebreak), moving from fourth to first place, the obstacle between Pallavolo San Giorgio and promotion to the B1 series is Lasersoft Riccione. The expert team from Rimini won group F, dominating it, with 73 points (24 wins and only 2 defeats) and last January took part in the qualification for the F4 of the Italian Cup where they met the fate of Promoball and Alsenese Volleyball , closing the triangular in second place. At Pallavolo San Giorgio there is an air of enthusiasm and awareness of one’s means of being able to achieve the feat, which narrowly escaped last season, leveraging the possibility of exploiting the home factor as coach Matteo Capra explains: “Obviously a very important match. We got here with a lot of effort and this year we don’t want to miss the dream for which we have been working for two years with this group. There isn’t much to say, we are now used to living with the stress of results but we are always aware that everything we achieve comes exclusively from performance. We have to think about ourselves, about our game and about our wonderful audience who, as always, I hope will come in large numbers.”
Lasersoft Riccione is in its second season in the national series, the first was in 2022/2023, and is led by coach Michele Piraccini and has its strong point in the opposite Valeria Tallevi Diotallevi, with a past at Snoopy Pesaro and Consolini Volley between B1 and A2, reaching promotion to A2 (2016) and the play offs the following season. Other prominent elements are the central Sofia Spadoni, with numerous seasons in A2 and B1 at Lilliput Settimo Torinese, Consolini Volley and Teatina Chieti, where she was a teammate of the former Piacenza captain Alice Ditonto. Furthermore, the Romagna roster in the current season has been enriched by the central defender Eleonora Mancino in place of the injured Valentina Gugnali, central defender and captain. The rest of the team is made up of the setter Michela Montesi and Lucia Mercolini, the forwards Nicole Spinaci, Sara Bologna, Martina Gabellini, Giada Godenzoni and Francesca Tobia. The central defenders are completed by Alice Ricci while the liberos are Federica Calzolari and Angela Jelenkovic.
There are no precedents between the two teams in Serie B2. The Tuscan Alessandra Fiori and the Lombard Laura Monti will direct, kick-off at 6pm at the San Giorgio Piacentino sports hall in Viale Repubblica. The match will be broadcast live from 6pm on the Objective Volley YouTube channel and Facebook page. The winner of the double challenge between Pallavolo San Giorgio and Riccione which in cases of equal scores (not results), as explained in Art.27 of the Match Regulations: A play-off set will be played, when at the end of the home and away matches, there will be: “In the case of a victory for each side and the same sum of points (3-1 and 3-0 guarantee 3 points to the winner and 0 to the loser, 3-2 distributes 2 points to the winner and 1 to the loser), for example, in the first leg, team A wins 3-0 and in the return match, team B wins 3-1 and the extra set is played”, will be promoted to B1. The loser will face the winner of the second-placed round of groups E and F, San Damaso and Battistelli Pesaro.
SAN GIORGIO VOLLEYBALL – LASERSOFT RICCIONE
San Giorgio: Amadei (L), Erba, Polletta, Sangiorgi, Marinucci, Gilioli, Camurri, Galelli (L), Lunardini, Tonini, Arfini, Cossali, Zoppi. All. Capra.
Riccione: Calzolari (L1), Tallevi Diotallevi, Mercolini, Spinaci, Jelenkovich (L), Bologna, Spadoni, Gabellini, Montesi, Godenzoni, Ricci, Mancino, Tobia. All. Piraccini.
Referees: Alessandra Fiori and Laura Monti.
