The Italian men’s UnipolSai Superleague semifinal best-of-five matches are tied at 1-1. Sir Safety Conad Perugia took down Diatec Trentino and defending champions Azimut Modena defeated Cucine Lube Ciitanova.
Perugia’s Aleksandar Atanasijevic scored 22 points in the four set match 3-1, (30-28, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22). Perugia was able to dominate at the net over Trentino 11-7 and 53 percent to 49 percent in attack efficiency. The first set of the match was a tough battle that went way past the normal ending point of 25, with Perugia having to fight to earn the 1-0 advantage in the match. The second set went to Trentino, but Perugia was able to stay consistent the remainder of the match to win in four.
Modena fought back from down one set to lead the match 2-1. In a tough fourth set Modena wasn’t able to handle their 22-19 and 24-22 leads late in the match, having to fight off nine match points to take down Lube in a 3-1, (21-25, 27-25, 25-16, 34-32) decision.
Leading Modena was Earvin Ngapeth with 23 points, while Tsevetan Sokolov produced a match-best 26 points for Lube.
The third round of the Italian men’s semifinals is set to take place on April 9.
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