Marche derby is red and white
The Marche derby è biancorosso
Lube handles the delicate stages best and expels PalaSavelli in three sets: The white-and-reds’ first outside win in the 2024/25 Regular Season comes just a stone’s throw from home, in the outside derby at PalaSavelli in Porto San Giorgio, in front of a large Predators representation. Cucine Lube Civitanova folds the ‘cousins’ of Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina in three sets (23-25, 18-25, 21-25) and wins the’advance of the’11th° round of the first leg in SuperLega Credem Banca, after raising the bar to take home the full stake.
Long-balanced match at PalaSavelli, the difference being Lube’s greater effectiveness in attack and the sharpness in both wall and service of its performers. Lagumdzija closes as MVP and top scorer with 16 points (78% positivityà and 2 ace). Also in double figures was Bottolo (11). Among the hosts the most insidious, as expected, are Fedrizzi (11) and Petkovic (10).
Tight first set. Lube è moreù concrete in attack (68% vs. Yuasa’s 52%) and at the wall (2 to 1 winners, both by Potke). Early on, errors by the hosts and two Boninfante feats launched Lube (3-7), but Yuasa got back on track (6-7). A series on serve by Bottolo (5 points in the set) with a final ace (7-10) allows the red-and-whites to stretch, but Yuasa remains insidious and finds the hook with Demyanenko (14-14). Lube raised the level on defense and went back ahead with Lagumdzija’s attack and Boninfante’s ace (14-16) and then stretched with Podrascanin’s wall (16-19). In the final, Civitanova hurt itself, then cashed in Petkovic’s ace (23-23). Chinenyeze’s first time and Petkovic’s error put things back on track (23-25).
Second set balanced until the red and white jolt with Lagumdzija (9 points with 90% attack and 2 aces. Initial flare-up of the cucinieri (0-4), then the balance returns (6-7), but Civitanova immediately builds a lead break and after a long back-and-forth finds with Lagumdzija the diagonal of +3 (12-15). The gap widens due to Grottazzolina’s setting error (13-17). Ortenzi’s men, as in the previous set, don’t give an inch and come back down after a play by Demyanenko and Fedrizzi’s ace (16-17). Lagumdzija’s serving and attacking power, the red-and-white wall and an intuition by Boninfante steered the set (17-24), which closed on Yuasa’s net serve (18-25).
In the third set Lube sweats and risks, but recovers in the final. The start è good (9-12) after Bottolo’s broadside. The leitmotif doesn’t change and Grottazzolina comes back under finding in the aces of Demyanenko and Zhukouski the key plays for the hooking (14-14). On Lube’s attack error (17-16) comes Grottazzolina’s first ever lead over its cousins in a SuperLega set. The hosts also find the’stretch (18-16). Medei’s men got back to even parity after a compact wall (19-19), and struck with Lagumdzija to overtake (19-20). Newcomer Gargiulo’s two aces, interspersed with Chinenyeze’s play, made the difference (21-25).
