Giani’s team, still without Leal, passes like a week ago in Umbria and on Sunday afternoon can close the series and return to the final after 6 years
Perugia-Modena 2-3 (26-24, 25-22, 16-25, 29-31, 13-15) Modena is still doing the feat, as PalaBarton conquered a week ago and on Sunday it will have the match ball at home. Among the controversies still alive for the Leal-Travica case, in a crowded PalaBarton, Perugia and Modena gave life to a spectacular game-3 that saw Giani’s team triumph and thus went on for 2-1 in the series of semi-final championship. It was a very close match for at least three of the five sets. The coach Nikola Grbic fielded Sir Safety with Giannelli in control, Rychlicki opposite, Ricci and Solè in the middle, Leon and Anderson spikers and Colaci free. On the other hand, Modena presented itself with Bruno as director, Abdel-Aziz opposite, Stankovic and Sanguinetti at the center, Earvin Ngapeth and Van Garderen spikers, with Rossini free. The start of Perugia was positive, with the extension up to 9-5 (ace by Giannelli) and then always forward until 20-18 (pipe by Solè), when there was the Modenese reaction inspired by Earvin Ngapeth and concretized on 21-13 by a devastating Abdel-Aziz (8 points in the fraction with 67% in attack), even if then two empty attacks by Mazzone and Abdel-Aziz himself (26-24) gave the advantage to Perugia. Same script in the second set, with Sir Safety ahead until 10-7 (attack by Leon) and again the reaction of Leo Shoes up to overturn the score to 12-13 (again Abdel-Aziz, who closed the fraction with 11 points, rising to 85% in attack). Then the two teams went forward point by point until 19-19 and then it was the serve that made the difference (Plotnytskyi’s ace for 21-19) and two consecutive attacks by Leon closed (25-22) , of which the second after a fortunate defense of Travica.
What a race
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In the third set Modena surprised Perugia by reaching 2-6 and then extending up to 3-9 on Van Garderen’s series of lines. From then on, only Modena was seen on the pitch, which went on to win despite Grbic’s attempts to reverse the trend through changes, closing (16-25) with an attack by Earvin Ngapeth (7 points in the set, equal to Van Garderen). In the fourth set Modena went in extension (7-10) with the usual Abdel-Aziz and then on the series of errors of Perugia it extended up to 9-13. It was the ace of Rychlicki (15-17) to give Sir Safety the push for the comeback which resulted in 19-19 on Plotnytskyi’s series of beats. Then Perugia tried to escape, but Modena went ahead on 22-23. At 24-24 there was the ace of Rychlicki and then the triumph of Modena (29-31) with an ace of Abdel-Aziz, after having also canceled two match balls in Perugia. The tiebreak has no history: Nimir takes it home and signs a capital test. Game-4 will be played on Sunday 24 April at 6 pm in Modena, where Giani will also be able to count on Leal’s return after serving with him the two days of disqualification (halved after today’s acceptance of the appeal of the Emilian club).
April 20 – 11.25pm
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