In the Italian men’s UnipolSai Superleague playoffs, Cucine Lube Civitanova and Diatec Trentino are just one win away from moving on to the finals. The semifinal round is a best-of-five series with each team now up 2-1 over their opponents.
Lube took a 2-0 lead in the most recent match up, but defending champions Azimut Modena fought back to force a fifth and deciding set. In from of a home crowd of more than 4,000 fans, Lube was able to take the 3-2, (25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 15-25, 15-12) victory to move ahead in the series.
For Lube, Osmany Juantorena put down a team-best 17 points while Jiri Kovar added another 14. Scoring a match-best 23 points was Modena’s Earvin Ngapeth.
With the win, Lube has now taken two matches off Modena in a matter of days, with a three set sweep coming just days before in the first leg of the European Champions League Playoffs. The two teams will face off again on April 13 in the Champions League before taking each other on again in the fourth meeting of the Italian semifinals on April 19.
In the other semifinal match up, Trentino took a four set decision over Sir Safety Conad Perugia 3-1, (28-26, 30-28, 22-25, 25-21).
Trentino had a solid, well-rounded offense in the win with five players contributing double-digit points – Filippo Lanza (15), Simon Van De Voorde (13), Jan Stokr (12), Tine Urnaut (12) and Sebastian Sole (11). For the losing squad, Aleksandar Atanasijevic was the top scorer of the match with 22 points.
The next round of semifinal play will continue on April 19 – if Lube and Trentino win their matches they will move onto the finals.
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