Trentino Volleyball

The calendar year 2025 ends with a direct elimination match for the men’s Itas Trentino. The first of the four quarter-finals of the 48th edition of the Del Monte will be played on Monday 29 December at the BTS Arena in Trento^® Italian Cup; the gialloblù will make their seasonal debut in the competition by challenging Vero Volley Monza, which they faced in Brianza only on Friday evening: whoever wins will advance to the Final Four, scheduled for 7-8 February in Bologna. Kick-off scheduled for 8.30pm: live RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT platform VBTV.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The Italian champions team arrives at the first in or out match of their season after the 3-0 at home to the same opponent they will challenge again on Monday; a result which allowed her to close the calendar year at the top of the table and to score her tenth consecutive victory, confirming an excellent moment of form which, however, alone does not guarantee passage to the next round, as the coach explains well Marcelo Mendez presenting the appointment.
“I expect a different match from the one we played on Friday in Monza, if only because this one will be without appeal: whoever wins continues their journey in the competition, whoever loses goes home – explained the coach of Itas Trentino during the presentation – . There will therefore be a different pressure to manage, but we are happy to be able to play in front of our fans. We face an opponent who was able to give us a hard time in at least two of the three sets played two days ago and who will be able to take to the court with a clear mind and a loose arm. All reasons that must make us approach this challenge with attention and determination. We want to qualify for the Final Four and we know that we can only achieve this goal by playing good volleyball.”
Itas Trentino will attend the match without only Lavia, therefore with thirteen players available (to which will be added baby Giani), who will complete their preparation for the match with training this afternoon and on Monday morning at the BTS Arena. The player who has played in the greatest number of editions of the Italian Cup is Captain Riccardo Sbertoli, who on this occasion will inaugurate his ninth participation in the highest national trophy, without however having won it yet. The only absolute debutants are the central defenders Sandu and Torwie; the players in the squad who have already lifted the trophy are Flavio and Pesaresi (1 time each). The athlete of the squad with the highest number of appearances in the Italian Cup wearing the Trentino shirt is Alessandro Michieletto (12 games).
THE HISTORY OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN THE ITALIA CUP What begins on Monday evening will be the 24th participation in the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup in twenty-five years of activity for Trentino Volley, which only missed the final phase of the competition in its debut season in A1 (2000/01, eliminated in the quarter-finals of the preliminary phase by Cuneo) and in the last season under Lattari’s management (2006/07). On eighteen occasions the yellow-blue club has made it past the quarter-finals, thus reaching the Final Four; the last, eliminating Cisterna with a 3-1 home success on 29 December 2024. The victory of the competition came in three cases: 31 January 2010 in Montecatini Terme thanks to the 3-1 success over Cuneo in the final, 19 February 2012 with the 3-2 comeback against Lube at the PalaLottomatica in Rome and 30 December 2012 with the 3-1 again against Lube at the Assago Forum. Overall, nine finals have been played, also taking into account those lost against Cuneo (2010/11), Modena (2014/15 and 2015/16), Civitanova (2016/17), Perugia (2021/22) and Piacenza (2022/23). In the other five participations the elimination came directly to the quarter-finals: in 2002/03 at the hands of Macerata, in 2003/04 at the hands of Cuneo, in 2004/05, in 2007/08 and in 2008/09 again at the hands of Treviso. A total of 53 matches were played in the event: the balance sheet was 30 victories and 23 defeats (the last in the semi-final in Bologna against Civitanova 2-3 on 25 January).
THE OPPONENTS Vero Volley Monza returns to play an Italian Cup match exactly one year and eleven months after the last previous match. After failing to qualify for the draw last season, the team from Brianza in this edition of the tournament fully earned the right to be among the eight protagonists by climbing to eighth place in the standings at the end of the first round (a position it still occupies) in the last valid round; a placement resulting from four victories in eleven matches. Three of these came against opponents that they then put behind them: Grottazzolina, Padova and Cuneo. The return so far has not allowed Eccheli’s team to move even a step, but the recent inside-out challenges with Trento (whom they had eliminated in the semi-finals of both the Play Offs and the Italian Cup in 2024) are important precedents that can offer further boost to the Lombards. For the Brianza club, this is the ninth participation in the Italian Super League Cup, in which they have only once overcome the obstacle of the quarter-finals: the 2024 edition which ended in the Final (1-3 defeat by Perugia).
THE FORMULA OF THE DEL MONTE® COPPA ITALIA 2026 The quarter-finals will be played on 29 and 30 December, direct elimination matches with pairings defined thanks to the ranking of the first round of the SuperLega Credem Banca regular season. Trento-Monza is the only match to be played on Monday, the other three are played on Tuesday: Verona-Milan (7pm), Piacenza-Modena (7.30pm) and Perugia-Civitanova (8.30pm). The Final Four is scheduled for the weekend of 7-8 February at the Unipol Arena in Bologna: the semi-finals on Saturday 7th (the winner of the BTS Arena will face the winner of Gas Sales Bluenergy-Valsa Group). The final is on Sunday 8 February.

THE PRECEDENTS For the fifth time in their history, Trentino Volley and Vero Volley Monza face each other in the Italian Cup; in fact, in the archive there are three quarter-finals (2017, 2018 and 2022 edition of the trophy – all won by the gialloblù 3-0) and a semi-final, in the 2024 edition won by the Brianza team at the tie break. Overall, there are only forty-one precedents in the archive, with thirty-four victories for Trento who won the last five matches 3-0: 21 September 2024 (in Florence), 24 November 2024 (in Trento), 15 February 2025 (in Monza), 16 November 2025 (in Trento) and 26 December 2025 (in Monza). Monza has not violated Trento since 14 April 2024 (3-2 in game 5 of the Scudetto Play Off Semifinal) and overall it has only done so twice in twenty-two previous matches.
THE REFEREES The direction of the match will be entrusted to Mauro Carlo Goitre (from Turin, in Serie A since 2008 and international since 2013) and Stefano Caretti (from Rome, in the role since 2016), in the third joint match in their careers. Curiously, both refer to Trentino Volley: 3-0 success in Padua on 26 December 2023 and 3-1 success in Cuneo on 8 November. Goitre is in his seventh match of the season in the men’s sector and has already directed Trentino Volley twenty-nine times, including four matches against Monza (all winners). On 16 January 2022 he refereed the same match that was played in the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup in Trento (3-0 home success). Caretti is in his eighth season in the men’s Serie A, the eleventh compared to Itas Trentino, the first overall between Trento and Monza.
MEDIA The match will be a global media event, enjoying simultaneous live broadcast on TV, radio and internet. On the small screen it will be broadcast by RAI Sport, a channel present on the digital terrestrial platform at number 58.
As always, live news will be provided on Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley’s media partner. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be consulted on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio commentary in live streaming. Live video streaming on the OTT platform has also been confirmed “VBTV”; the service is paid. For more information on its use, consult https://subscribe.volleyballworld.com/.
A summary of the match will be broadcast on TV on Friday 2 January at 4.30 pm, on RTTR – Trentino Volley’s TV partner.
On the internet, point-to-point updates will be managed by the Serie A Volleyball League website (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it itself and will always be active on the gialloblù Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKET OFFICE The match is included in the 2025/26 season ticket. It is possible to purchase tickets for the match at any time on the internet, by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/quarti-del-monte-coppa-italia-itas-trentino-vs-monza/291960, or directly on Monday evening at the BTS Arena ticket offices, active from 7.30 pm, the same time that the entrances to the arena will also be opened.