Lube Civitanova wins 5-set thriller over Perugia in the Italian Cup Finals

Luxembourg, February 24, 2020. The Italian Serie A hosted one of their biggest events of their season over the weekend, the Italian Cup final 4 taking place in Bologna. Cucine Lube Civitanova triumphed in the end 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 34-36, 15-10). This weekend featured four Italian teams who all take part in the European Cups. Lube Civitanova, Perugia, & Trentino are all taking part in the Champions League quarterfinals starting on March 3rd. Modena is competing in the CEV Cup, where they will be playing this week against French club GFC Ajaccio. 

Article by Daniel Meneley - CEV Digital Content Coordinator

The competition between these clubs in their domestic league can be fierce, with these four clubs as the top teams in the league every year since the 2015/2016 season. And with only five match weeks left to go in the regular season, the Cup is a great test for the teams to prove themselves in a competition that matters. 

This year’s edition saw Lube Civitanova & Trentino, who shared a pool in Champions League, face each other first in the semifinals. And just like in Champions League, Lube got the better of their rivals, albeit in a close 3-2 match (15-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-12). All 4 middles saw the court for Lube in this match, but it was Luxembourgish opposite hitter Kamil Rychlicki who provided his team with 22 points and some key serving runs. 

The next semifinal was between Perugia & Modena, which has been a fiercely contested match up over the past several seasons. However, on Saturday night the canaries could not keep up with the serving and attacking pressure from Perugia and the Block Devils won in straight sets (25-19, 25-22, 26-24). Oleh Plotnytskyi and Aleksandar Atanasijevic both came in with aces at opportune times that shifted the momentum in Perugia’s favour. Once again, depth proved to be a factor in this match as Perugia was able to bring star outside hitter Plotnytskyi off the bench while Modena could only manage to muster up a hobbled Denys Kaliberda. 

The finals between the two top teams in the top volleyball league in the world ended up living up to those lofty expectations. The five sets played over almost three hours included clutch moments, wild momentum shifts, and a 34-36 4th set that saw Lube waste 9 chances to close the match. Wilfredo Leon scored big against a tough Lube defense, racking up 26 kills, 4 aces, and a block for 30 points. He was outdone by his Cuban compatriots on the other side of the net though, with Robertlandy Simon scoring 6 kill blocks and Osmany Juantorena dominating his way to MVP of the match with 26 kills on 62% hitting.

This match ends Perugia’s incredible 23-game winning streak (including Champions League), but odds are that this will not be the last time that these two clubs play important matches against each other this season. If the brackets play out with the higher seed winning, they could potentially clash both in the Champions League and in the Scudetto finals. And given the impressive level of volleyball this weekend, I would not be surprised if Perugia has a chance to avenge this loss.